On the old B&O (now CSX) through Akron, Ohio, the ruling grade in both directions rose out of the Little Cuyahoga River Valley. The mainline ran a little less than a mile from my boyhood home. It was too far away to see, but I could hear. Back in the early- and mid-1950's, I'd lie in my bed and listen for an eastbound heading up the grade to Cuyahoga Falls. The road engine, likely a 4-8-2, would pass, and then I'd hear another engine, the pusher, following along. I couldn't go to sleep until I heard the pusher coming back down the grade and whistling for the crossing at Bettes' Corners, on the way back to Akron Jct. Once the helper had gone back, I knew all was well in the world & I could sleep.
The horn blows far off, and gradually draws closer, blowing the familiar four blasts.
Soon, the rails begin to sing, a high pitched but not annoying hiss, and you know it is close.
The next sound is the prime movers, faint at first, but increasingly loud, chanting into the night with a determined cadence, pulling with all their might, yet casting an air of confidence.
The ground begins to shake, and the sound echoes off the surrounding hills.
The headlight sweeps around the curve through the fog, a blinding streak of light.
All too soon, the locomotives pass you by, and the cars follow, with their shrieks, clunks, and imposing sense of dark mass outlined against the night sky.
The shrieks begin to fade, and the last car curves around the bend, flashing its red light proclaiming that this is the end of the train.
You become aware of the grin on your face, and tramp off through the darkness, headed for bed once again.
zardoz Of course. if some corporation wants to finance my move....The Kepler telescope has recently found a potentially habitable planet "only" 12 light-years away; I wonder if they have something similar to trains there....
Of course. if some corporation wants to finance my move....The Kepler telescope has recently found a potentially habitable planet "only" 12 light-years away; I wonder if they have something similar to trains there....
Trains? Possibly. NIMBYs? Certainly. (Blankety-blank humans, ruinin' our nice neighborhood...)
Chuck (occasional science fiction author)
Boydif you can't handle the [train] noise then sell your house.
Boyd,
If you were the public relations man for the local railroad and I were running for political office you would make me really happy with your remark.
I can just see my campaign literature. "The railroad does not own our homes! Tax paying citizens must get relief from oppressive profit making corporations! Vote for me and vote against the terrible, awful, no good, very bad railroad!"
As you read the ridiculous but vote getting attack you may be inclined to say "But this guy is running for dog catcher. What does that have to do with railroads?
No matter. I have my issue and my cause.
Lost in the argument would be the fact that those loud horns are sounding because the law requires them for safety reasons. So we might begin by asking if the law is really needed and we could modify it to provide for safety without out the horns in sensitive areas.
But I would be having none of it. I have an election to win. I want to be dog catcher and now I have a good way to get the job.
None of this is to say your argument is wrong. Quite the opposite. This is America and blunt truth is often forbidden.
John
If you move into a town or neighborhood where the railroad has grade crossing or just is there before you buy, then you have a gripe with your realtor not the railroad. If you were told or knew it before hand moved in, it is your fault, your problem...admit your error in judgement and move out. Most anywhere in the US a rail line was probably in place from 80 to 160 some odd years before you arrived, they staked their property and their rights and newbies have virtually no rights or abilities to fight it. We have city folk arriving in sylvan farm communities and want farmers to get rid of the cows because of the stench. Too bad.
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ACY On the old B&O (now CSX) through Akron, Ohio, the ruling grade in both directions rose out of the Little Cuyahoga River Valley. The mainline ran a little less than a mile from my boyhood home. It was too far away to see, but I could hear. Back in the early- and mid-1950's, I'd lie in my bed and listen for an eastbound heading up the grade to Cuyahoga Falls. The road engine, likely a 4-8-2, would pass, and then I'd hear another engine, the pusher, following along. I couldn't go to sleep until I heard the pusher coming back down the grade and whistling for the crossing at Bettes' Corners, on the way back to Akron Jct. Once the helper had gone back, I knew all was well in the world & I could sleep.
A nice story well-told, ACY. Lucky you, with those memories. I can imagine you falling to sleep with their help to this day.
I envy you gents who got to hear those steam whistles in the night. A far away diesel horn ( I refuse to call it a whistle) can sound pretty good as well, but it's just not the same.
henry6If you move into a town or neighborhood where the railroad has grade crossing or just is there before you buy, then you have a gripe with your realtor not the railroad.
Actually, Henry, I have no gripe with my railroad. NJT's station is just over a mile from my house but I never hear a thing because NJT does not use horns. And it doesn't use horns on the Port Jervis line either, at least not on the New Jersey section. The diesel engines are so quiet that it is possible to stand in the station and not even know the train is coming until it rolls by you.
John, NJT doesn't use horns? That's odd, last time I was home in Paramus, NJ I could hear the NJT horns from Ridgewood, the next town over. Is your area a designated quiet zone?
Wayne
Being a "good neighbor" is reciprocal. In many places, highways have noise barriers on both sides to reduce the ambient sound level. Perhaps the rails need to consider installing more hornless crossings or face requirements for sound barriers, too?
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
So far, at least, the quiet zones are for the account of the municipal buyers, with some states -- like my N.D. -- helping out. Don't look for the railroads to volunteer their stockholders' money. And why should they? The louder horns that are annoying the neighbors are at the insistence of Washington.
A well-designed quiet zone can work without causing a loss of safety. A good example might be the CSX Blue Island Sub in Chicago between 95th and 119th Streets. However, it requires that the railroad, municipalities and regulatory bodies work together to come up with a reasonable plan and appropriate engineering to make it work.
Wayne,
If you heard horns from trains in Ridgewood they has to be an explanation but I don't know what it is. I lived ion the same line in Waldwick for many years on Hopper Avenue. Never once did I hear a horn as NJT trains passed over the Hopper Avenue grade crossing. If I was out in my yard I could hear the warning bell and I could hear the diesel engines as NJT parked engines in the Waldwick yard and kept them running over night but I cannot recall ever hearing a horn.
So I cannot explain the horns you heard in Paramus.
As I'm running our Polar Express trains to the North Pole and back each night, I have to wonder if the residents near the crossings are cringing or realize who's on the trains.
Normally, the line sees one or two freight trains a week, plus two or three of our trains during our operating season.
Polar means two trips per night on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as well as one trip on some Thursdays. I try not to get too carried away with the horn, but rules are rules, and with eleven cars (450 passengers) and another locomotive behind me, if I'm running at track speed, well...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Hi John!
Yeah, I can't explain it either, but I know what I heard.
Ghost trains maybe? Nah, ghost trains would have steam whistles.
Firelock76 Hi John! Yeah, I can't explain it either, but I know what I heard. Ghost trains maybe? Nah, ghost trains would have steam whistles. Wayne
Old enough to remember those steam whistles well. On a quiet evening the engineers could certainly make them seem lonely and ghostly.
Norm
Railroads seem to always have these problems were they can't really win. The neighbors are complaining about the noise right now, but if the Railroad isn't allowed to use the horns, then someone will probably get hit and sue the Railroad saying that they didn't soun the horn to warn the person, and the neighbors will really get on the railroad for hitting the person.
When the people bought the house they knew the Railroad was there, and the Railroad can run as many trains as they want. It would be like buying a house next to a four lane highway, and complaining about noise levels when it is widened to eight lanes, and more traffic travels by.
If I was on of the Railroad officials, I would hold a press conference and explain that the only reason the train blows the horn is for safety reasons, to alert everyone. I would explain that those who want a ban on the horns are potentially putting lives at risk. Maybe say that a mother driving her two children to school turns around to look at her two kids and doesn't see the crossing gates come down, without te horn being sounding, she would collide with the train possibly killing everyone in the car, and giving the engineer emotional trama, however with the horn being sounded, te family is saved. I would explain how the Railroads #1 priority is safety, and safety is always put first. That would defiantally win over the hearts and minds.
Buy them earplugs if it's up to the railroads to solve these issues created by people that build and move close to a crossing but don't want the sound.
Talk about a no-win situation. Developers would build ON the railroad right of way if they could get air rights. (They know they can sell their houses to some poor chump who can't afford any better.) The political subdivision -- city or county -- in charge of zoning, greedy for new property-tax dollars, would let them do it.
That's how these situations come into being -- every day, all over the country.
I'd buy close to a rail line. No, not on top of it or within 15 ft. of it... but you know within a block of it. And homes near the tracks aren't that much cheaper really. It might make 5% difference on the price of the home. But really the cheapest homes (at least here in Canada) are no where near any rail tracks. If you're willing to live in a remote area you can get a nice home for 30K or less...a home that would cost you half a million in most big cities.
I lived within that block of a R.R. for 15 years -- as a grownup -- and they couldn't run enough trains for me. But we railfans are never in such a minority as on this issue!
The bottom line is that the result of a grade crossing "event" that is serious cannot be reversed. But there are noise control technologies that any home owner can employ to insure that his bedroom facing the tracks still gives him a restful nights sleep. There are many many people living in the main flight paths of airport runways that face the same problem.
Another Ed Quillen "stupid zone".....I'll go get the orange diamond advanced warning signs out....
http://www.edquillen.com/eq1998/19980531p.html
http://www.edquillen.com/eq2002/20020526p.html
Along with the real estate agents, mix in liberal quantities of political hacks, rubber-tired engineers, developers and "me firsters". Season to suit. Call it "ambiance" and move on.
Yes, MC, Ed Quillen has an excellent thesis. I have long wondered why people who have their houses built in the floodplains of rivers expect to be reimbursed when their houses are flooded. I had not thought of those who build flammable houses in places where fires could come upon them. The same goes for those who build on the Outer Bank of North Carolina--hurricanes do come along there, and wreak great havoc.
I am thankful that I live a little over a mile high (above the smog level) in Salt Lake City; of course, if the water reservoir which is even higher should be ruptured---.
Johnny
Maybe the real estate people can start advertising in "Trains Magazine". Trackside homes with a great view of the railroad tracks with plenty of trains. Start marketing new homes to rail fans.
King, NC.
ROSBORNE68 Maybe the real estate people can start advertising in "Trains Magazine". Trackside homes with a great view of the railroad tracks with plenty of trains. Start marketing new homes to rail fans.
That's a great idea. Most sales people would shy away from homes located near tracks, so this might be an opportunity for someone.
Norm48327 "As an aside, the lot was once home to one of Henry Ford's "Village Industries," which is why old-timers still refer to it as the "carburetor plant." You just made me feel old.
"As an aside, the lot was once home to one of Henry Ford's "Village Industries," which is why old-timers still refer to it as the "carburetor plant."
You just made me feel old.
Dan
Norm48327 And the beat goes on, and on and on, ad infinitum. People move close to the airport and complain about the noise. They move to farm country and complain about the smell of cow manure. The unwary are the ones who get trapped, but it of their own doing. * * * * Some of the worst offenders in this game are real estate agents, some of whom will tell a prospective buyer anything about a nearby railroad that's necessary to make a sale. I can't even begin to count the complaints I've seen about rail traffic based on misrepresentations made by real estate agents when people bought their homes. For example, a few years ago, a bunch of people in a subdivision on the west side of Omaha complained about rail traffic on nearby rail line because their real estate agent(s) had told them there was hardly any traffic on the line and it would likely be abandoned. The rail line was the UP's east-west mainline, one of the busiest railroads in the country. This kind of thing happens all of the time. Unfortunately, people don't know as much about railroads as they do about highways or airports, so they believe what they are told.
And the beat goes on, and on and on, ad infinitum. People move close to the airport and complain about the noise. They move to farm country and complain about the smell of cow manure. The unwary are the ones who get trapped, but it of their own doing.
* * * *
Some of the worst offenders in this game are real estate agents, some of whom will tell a prospective buyer anything about a nearby railroad that's necessary to make a sale. I can't even begin to count the complaints I've seen about rail traffic based on misrepresentations made by real estate agents when people bought their homes. For example, a few years ago, a bunch of people in a subdivision on the west side of Omaha complained about rail traffic on nearby rail line because their real estate agent(s) had told them there was hardly any traffic on the line and it would likely be abandoned. The rail line was the UP's east-west mainline, one of the busiest railroads in the country. This kind of thing happens all of the time. Unfortunately, people don't know as much about railroads as they do about highways or airports, so they believe what they are told.
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