How Far can you hear a train whistle or horn?

[Anonymous]

I live over 5 miles from the nearest railroad and I can hear the sounds of the trains often and when the wind is blowing the right way I can hear them over a television very clearly. How far away have you heard a train?

[Anonymous]

I live a good 5 miles from the nearest tracks, but when the wind is blowing just right I can hear them all quite clearly. More of a background noise than anything else, but it's there none-the-less.

Most often I hear them in the evenings when I am working with the computer, never the less, they aren't loud enough to wake me from my sleep.

[Anonymous]

I used to live very close to the CP line where it runs parallel to the Georgian Bay. I could here the trains from about 5-8 miles away-- the sound carried over the water very well, especially on hot summer nights, when all else is quiet and the air is the most dense.

[BNSFNUT]

If I am up to an education center that I help out at I can hear trains down in the valley about 800 ft below all the time. This is about 6 miles. On a cold clear night I can hear trains at home. This is about 8 miles away.

[CShaveRR]

When I was at college, virtually isolated from the civilized world (i.e., no car), I could hear those lonesome train horns from two different railroads, neither of which were closer than six or seven miles, as the crow flies, to the campus. I had to be outside the dorm to hear them, but keep in mind that these trains were moving at roughly right angles to the direction from which I was hearing them, so a horn facing somebody would carry further than that.

[Mikeygaw]

i have tracks within about a mile in two directions, plus a small line servicing a chemical plant a few blocks from me... i hear them loud and clear

[jeaton]

Reminds me of my trip last fall. Taking pictures (railroad) west of Belen, NM on the desert on a very quiet day I could clearly hear trains blowing for crossings all the way into the Belen Yard, at least ten miles away. I am sure that the sound could be heard at greater distances on any windless day in an open desert.

Jay

[corwinda]

When conditions are just right (cool, quiet nights) I have heard trains from a long ways. Just the EMDs lugging freight up towards Willamete pass - which would put it somewhere between twenty and forty miles as the crow flies, with less distance meaning a lot more hill between the track and where I'm listening in the McKenzie valley.

[MP57313]

Northern Virginia sunsets are often cloudy, and if I am in the Manassas Park area around sunset then one can hear the VRE trains on NS long after they have passed, as they blow the horn for crossings.
Back at home, we live about 5-6 miles from where the BNSF Harbor Sub runs due west through Carson, CA. On some days especially when the Santa Ana winds are blowing, we can hear the trains from the Carson area. There are also several crossings in Torrance, about 2-3 miles away, but they are not directly downwind like Carson is.

[jchnhtfd]

Depends so much... where I used to live, in Vermont, it was about 8 miles and a good size hill to the CV main, but 'most any quiet night -- particularly in winter -- I could listen to the horns at the grade crossings (and loved it!) -- and sometimes the GP9s chanting as they came up the grade to Roxbury. Up in Ontario -- up around Longlac, where I used to spend some time, you could hear the CN blowing 10 to 15 miles off.

Nothing like the sound. Nothing in the world is like the sound of a train whistle on a quiet night...

[Anonymous]

The tracks that were only a quarter mile away from me are now gone, but i can still hear horns from the main line in augusta kansas 11 miles away

[BNSFGP38]

Why can you guys hear it 5 miles away, but people at the crossing 900 feet away cant. Hmmm mine must be plugged up or something.[}:)]

[swknox]

I Live out in the Country about 2.5 miles from the tiny town of Farmington which houses the NS Delmarva Secondary here in Delaware. The next town south is Greenwood - about 5 miles away and the next town south of that is Bridgeville about 10 miles give or take a mile. On a clear night (with the TV turned on mind you) I can hear the Local working its way north at about 11:30 - 12:30 every night. I usally can here it not only blowing the horns in the town of Bridgeville but the moaning of the EMD or GE power in the lead as well. Its also very easy to hear the train at that distance just going down the track because we still have Stick Rail and no wielded rail in place. Clickity - Clack down the track till it reached Harrington ( 4 miles north of Farmington) where the small flat switching yard is. The town of Harrington was named for a former PRR president back in the 1800's complete with a tower and PRR caboose - both are open to puplic. I can hear the switching going on all day in Harrington which is a bout 5 miles from me.

[vsmith]

In the city, 12 miles from the nearest remaining RR line and ocassionally I can still hear the horns if I'm outdoors, This occurs mostly in the summertime.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I have it made in the shade at my current address. I can hear CSX at the Clearing intermodal terminal about a mile to the north, Metra Southwest Service about 3 miles to the south, IHB about 2 1/2 miles to the west plus the 737's and MD-80's of various airlines taking off from Midway Airport about 2 to 2 1/2 miles to the north.

[JoeKoh]

I live 5 miles away from the tracks but like others if the wind is right i can hear them crossing rt 24.
stay safe
Joe

[Modelcar]

...Of course conditions dictate how far it might be but have experienced 6 or 7 miles for train whistles and I've heard vehicles {tires singing}, late at night {years ago}, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike from 10 miles away.

[tree68]

I've heard horns from CN across the St Lawrence River (a good 10 miles, including a number of the 1000 Islands) when conditions were just right.

[RudyRockvilleMD]

I live 4 - 5 miles north of the nearest CSX grade crossing, and I can hear the trains blowing for the crossing on most days almost any time of the day when I am outdoors. Indoors is a different story. It depends on the time of the day, which windows are open, what equipment is running, and where I am in the house.

In general the distance a sound carries depends on its sound pressure level, the terrain, (trees or other obstructions) the presence of reinforcement such as echos, and atmospheric conditions (rain, fog or snow).

[daveklepper]

From a Acoustics and Noise Control expert certified by the Institute of Noise Control Engineering:

Much depends on atmospheric conditions, with still air or very steady downwind the best. Tubulence reduces the distance. Temperture gradients, cooler on bottom and hotter on top, or inversion, the opposite, can help or hurt, depending on the topography, and for topography, usually line-of-sight is important, but blocking can be overcome by reflections and the diffraction caused by temperature gradients

And of course the loudness of the horn and the hearing sensitivity of the listener!

[Mookie]

They are 17 blocks straight west of our bedroom. Windows are closed, storm windows are on and yet every night this week, they have gone right through the bedroom. All night long. Such a comforting sound! Course, I get to listening and forget to sleep!

Moo

[mersenne6]

All the way from my house to where the train is blowing its horn for the grade crossing.[:)]

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

They are 17 blocks straight west of our bedroom. Windows are closed, storm windows are on and yet every night this week, they have gone right through the bedroom. All night long. Such a comforting sound! Course, I get to listening and forget to sleep!
Moo

STORY!

After the Ice Storm in 1998 (we were on the southern end - thousands of power poles down, tree damage, etc), my fire department developed a close relationship with one of the dozen fire departments sent into the area to help us out. In the years since our members have gone to visit them for their field days and other events, and their members have been up for golf, dinners, barbeques, etc.

We frequently camp on their field day grounds when we visit - sometimes a small tent city. Evenings around the campfire usually involve some spirits of the liquid kind, in some cases to a certain level of excess.

You have to cross the old Erie line (Port Jervis to Binghampton - now NYSW/NS) to get onto the grounds. There is also a very sharp curve, a bridge (over the Delaware) and 4-5 crossings in a very short space. Makes for a rather noisy visit.

One Sunday morning, just after sunrise (and not all that long after we'd called it a night), one of our members (who'd spent a lot of time with Jack D that evening) was rudely awakened by what he swore was a train coming through his tent.

I was too busy scrambling out of my tent for a better view to even notice.

[Mookie]

[;)] Use to separate the men from the boys, now we separate the train watchers from the rest of the world!

Boss came in this morning all ruffled cuz he had to wait for a coal train. Asked him what the head-end power was (sounds like BNSF and NS), which direction (west) and what kind (coal). Told him to get locomotive numbers next time. If you are going to sit there and watch, take notes. What else do you have to do!

[BigJim]

At my old home near the east end of the airport, I was very surprised that at times I could hear trains on the Norfolk Division even though they were on the other side of a ridge of mountains. Every bit of 10 - 11 miles away.

[Sterling1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

I live a good 5 miles from the nearest tracks, but when the wind is blowing just right I can hear them all quite clearly. More of a background noise than anything else, but it's there none-the-less.

Most often I hear them in the evenings when I am working with the computer, never the less, they aren't loud enough to wake me from my sleep.

Same here, except I live 5 miles from the nearest crossing and the only time I can hear the horn real well is after a rainstorm at night. You all are right, I live right on the main drag of the town so it's the white noise. Rare is any chance at hearing the horns, since the train traffic isn't all that much on Florida's CSX line through Orlando.

[Sterling1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

[;)] Use to separate the men from the boys, now we separate the train watchers from the rest of the world!

Boss came in this morning all ruffled cuz he had to wait for a coal train. Asked him what the head-end power was (sounds like BNSF and NS), which direction (west) and what kind (coal). Told him to get locomotive numbers next time. If you are going to sit there and watch, take notes. What else do you have to do!

HA! HA! HA! Separates the railfans from the non normal people . . .
Matt

[mersenne6]

Mookie, on more than one occasion I've made it a point to slow down so I would have to stop at the grade crossing and watch the train roll by....as Sterling1 said - separates the railfans from the non-normal people.[:)]

[Anonymous]

During the '40s I was raised in Follansbee WV in the northern panhandle along the Ohio river. I could look out my bedroom window and see the PRRs Pittsburgh-St. Lewis main line on the Ohio side. Seeing the passenger trains at night was a dream and hearing the moaning of the steam whistle would be the best lulliby I can think of. The track was about 3 miles from our house.

[Anonymous]

I use to hear them pretty good in Ft.calhoun,Ne when I use to live there.