Mookie Partial quiet zone?
Partial quiet zone?
Or intermittent quiet zone? Long-quiet-quiet-long.
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tree68 I've heard engineers who basically run one long horn blast with an ever-so-short break between the segments. If the engineer is just letting off the horn lever (or switch), then right back on it, it could well sound like just two blasts. With horns now being installed back on the carbody, there's a bit of a reservoir in the form of the air line between the horn valve and the horn. Too brief a break can cause the blasts to run into each other.
I've heard engineers who basically run one long horn blast with an ever-so-short break between the segments. If the engineer is just letting off the horn lever (or switch), then right back on it, it could well sound like just two blasts.
With horns now being installed back on the carbody, there's a bit of a reservoir in the form of the air line between the horn valve and the horn. Too brief a break can cause the blasts to run into each other.
Johnny
If every one was doing the same thing, I would suspect a local requirement of some kind in effect. To know for sure, you would need to talk to someone who works that area.
Jeff
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...
MookiePartial quiet zone?
Mook, I think that the described horn use maps to the same thing as being 'partially pregnant'.
The minimum intensity of any locomotive horn, under any circumstances, is currently 96dB, and I believe the OP said he was hearing two long blasts per crossing. Meanwhile, the 'legal' definition of a Partial Quiet Zone involves time of day, not time the horn is to be held on while blowing for the crossing (I believe the current interval is 10pm to 7am, during which no horn at all is sounded, with regular use outside that window).
Something I have occasionally observed is 'shorter bursts' used late at night, with the same pattern as the usual long-long-short-long but comparatively short 'beeps' and shorter shorts, the last being timed right as the engine is entering the crossing. This could be 'plausible denial' for any potential legal claim that the mandatory signal was not sounded, while reducing the sound pollution for surrounding neighbors. Two longs is NOT going to produce either effect particularly well...
And we can dispense with the usual comedians reflecting on 'short shorts', too: here ya go.
BaltACD Murphy Siding I just got home from a trip a couple hundred miles from home. We stayed in a rural area near a busy main of a Class 1 railroad. A train came through about every 45 minutes all night and all day! What I noticed at night was that the trains would blow their horns as only two long blasts, instead of the familiar long-long-short-long. The 5 or 6 crossings that I could hear them blowing the horn for are very rural. At night, there is no traffic. The landscape is flat, has no trees and you can see for miles. Is the long-long-short-long horn pattern a required sequence for the engineer, or is it up to the engineer to just do what's safe? Rules are the rules. If a Road Foreman of Engines or other company official would review the data recorded from the trip and saw the engineer only sounding 2 longs - the engineer is is trouble - be it a verbal repermand that won't show up on the record, a formal repermand that does remain on the employees record or even more serious discipline.
Murphy Siding I just got home from a trip a couple hundred miles from home. We stayed in a rural area near a busy main of a Class 1 railroad. A train came through about every 45 minutes all night and all day! What I noticed at night was that the trains would blow their horns as only two long blasts, instead of the familiar long-long-short-long. The 5 or 6 crossings that I could hear them blowing the horn for are very rural. At night, there is no traffic. The landscape is flat, has no trees and you can see for miles. Is the long-long-short-long horn pattern a required sequence for the engineer, or is it up to the engineer to just do what's safe?
The 5 or 6 crossings that I could hear them blowing the horn for are very rural. At night, there is no traffic. The landscape is flat, has no trees and you can see for miles. Is the long-long-short-long horn pattern a required sequence for the engineer, or is it up to the engineer to just do what's safe?
Rules are the rules. If a Road Foreman of Engines or other company official would review the data recorded from the trip and saw the engineer only sounding 2 longs - the engineer is is trouble - be it a verbal repermand that won't show up on the record, a formal repermand that does remain on the employees record or even more serious discipline.
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Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
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I just got home from a trip a couple hundred miles from home. We stayed in a rural area near a busy main of a Class 1 railroad. A train came through about every 45 minutes all night and all day! What I noticed at night was that the trains would blow their horns as only two long blasts, instead of the familiar long-long-short-long. The 5 or 6 crossings that I could hear them blowing the horn for are very rural. At night, there is no traffic. The landscape is flat, has no trees and you can see for miles. Is the long-long-short-long horn pattern a required sequence for the engineer, or is it up to the engineer to just do what's safe?
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