Air Horns at Grade Crossings

[Anonymous]

I live near the old D&RGW branch to the Kennecott Copper mine which Utah Railway is currently using to service a few remaining customers on. My question is this.

Starting about 7am we can distictly hear the trains at the grade crossings, however my wife said last night when she was up with the baby about 4am she could hear the engines, but she never heard any honking. So what are the rules at grade crossings? Here in SLC there has been a lot of people whinning about trains near homes (not nessecarily on the branch I live by), and the mayor of SLC has said he wants to make the railroad stop honking and lower the speed limit of the trains. I was under the impression that warning whistles were regulated by the FRA??

So whats the deal!? [;)]

[BentnoseWillie]

Rule 14L calls for two longs, a short and a long at every public crossing at grade.

A community can get the appropriate federal body to issue a horn restriction for specific crossings, which the railway is then required to post in the employee timetable. I have not heard of a time-of-day resriction before, only "horn is not to be used at the following crossing(s)..."

[Anonymous]

Thanks! So I guess I wasn't too far wrong!

[wabash1]

In some instances I have a kind heart and let people sleep if it is 2,3,4,5, in the morning and i can see both directions and it is clear i wont wake the dead. but i see just 1 light and i let it all loose. In other words if i dont blow for the crossing 2 longs a short then 1 long held til thru the crossing i can be fined and my lic pulled by the fra.

[Mookie]

Wabash - I am so glad to hear that from you. I was awake at 3 am and up by 4 am and heard 3 trains leaving town. Each one only whistled once for the crossings. But at 5 am, they were all back to the normal crossing whistle. I think they were just being considerate, since they do go through a lot of residential areas.

Mook

[Anonymous]

In my town (Erie IL) we have the downtown which sets next to single BNSF track. We don't have a town square, it's a triangle (city fathers must have run out of money or brains) Two of the legs of the triangle cross tracks 200 ft apart and we have three crossings a block in each direction. 2L,S,L at every crossing transposes into one looooooong at all hours of the day and night. I live three blocks from the tracks. It's GREEEEAAAAAAAATTTTT!!!!!!. When ordering locos at LHS and am asked if I want version with sound, I say why? I've got the most authentic sounds ever made for free.

[THayman]

I live in Johnstown, ON, near Prescott on the CN main corridor, and frequently hear no horns at the crossing, even during the day. I have, at times, heard a train go through and blast its horn, and another only a few minutes later (this is in broad daylight), not give any warning. The crossing is guarded by crossbucks only.

[Anonymous]

BNSF, you still here?

[traisessive1]

OK here goes ... this I was told by a CN conductor.

Unless there is a restriction, a railway employee should not care at all what time of day it is. They are to do they 2l s l sequence.

In BRockville where I am, I frequently got ripped off by engineers shortening that sequence. With 3 crossings side by side the good engineers were amazing ... but the ones who wanted to get fired and were nice ... well screw them.

What ever happened to following the rule book?

There is no time restrictions, the horns have just been brought back.

When I become an engineer ... man I will let all loose ... like ... its in the rules.

And the ones who just hold er down .... and let it blow one staight through ... rule vipolation .... yes .. amazing ... also yes.

[Anonymous]

Regarding local restrictions, when I worked for the NS we weren't allowed to use the horn when coming through Augusta, Ga. on Sundays between the hours of 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM. We had to flag all the cossings from the Savannah River Bridge to the yard.

[Anonymous]

I Think so........

[CShaveRR]

I believe I have seen a time-of-day restriction on horn blowing. It may not have been recent, however (and not on the railroad I currently work for).

[Anonymous]

I love the sound of the Horns now. But that is all coming to an and with all the jerk weeds out there complaining. There all gona regret all those words when more and more people get killed at these crossing. Just remember one thing......I will not call the cops when the stupid driver get's him self or her self into a very bad wreck with a Train.
Like they always say: You go up aggenst a Train and you will loose. I feel very sorry for the Train crews. Allan.

[zapp]

That rule book will get you killed if you follow everything in it.
It can be great if you want some overtime and screw the carrier at the same time, but remember that goes both ways!
If it's 3AM and I'm runnning through south central Oklahoma I'm not blowing by the book. I will use the horn but not excessively.
You have to factor common sence in there at some point.

QUOTE: Originally posted by traisessive1

OK here goes ... this I was told by a CN conductor.

Unless there is a restriction, a railway employee should not care at all what time of day it is. They are to do they 2l s l sequence.

In BRockville where I am, I frequently got ripped off by engineers shortening that sequence. With 3 crossings side by side the good engineers were amazing ... but the ones who wanted to get fired and were nice ... well screw them.

What ever happened to following the rule book?

There is no time restrictions, the horns have just been brought back.

When I become an engineer ... man I will let all loose ... like ... its in the rules.

And the ones who just hold er down .... and let it blow one staight through ... rule vipolation .... yes .. amazing ... also yes.

[tree68]

I was in a community on the old Erie main not long ago when a train came through at about 3 am. There are 4-5 crossings in very close proximity, which makes for a noisy visit during the day, even if they are restricted to around 10 mph by a very sharp curve.

During the 3 am trip, the hogger kept it short. He blew for every crossing, but it was more like toot, toot, peep, toot, rather than blast, blast, toot, blast...

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by baberuth73

Regarding local restrictions, when I worked for the NS we weren't allowed to use the horn when coming through Augusta, Ga. on Sundays between the hours of 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM. We had to flag all the cossings from the Savannah River Bridge to the yard.

That's just being a good neighbor!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

I was in a community on the old Erie main not long ago when a train came through at about 3 am. There are 4-5 crossings in very close proximity, which makes for a noisy visit during the day, even if they are restricted to around 10 mph by a very sharp curve.

During the 3 am trip, the hogger kept it short. He blew for every crossing, but it was more like toot, toot, peep, toot, rather than blast, blast, toot, blast...

Well, no one could complain about a "toot toot peep toot"...too bad more engineers are not that considerate, there probably would be fewer complaints... [;)]

[Anonymous]

One time at two in the morning, I heard a train comming through town and the enginer did a "shave-and-a-haircut" approach to blowing the horn. Must have been a bored enginer.

[JDV5th]

I have more problems with garbage men coming at 4 am than hearing trains (in the distance mind you). I suppose my love for trains has some bias in that statement though.

[chad thomas]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JDV5th

I have more problems with garbage men coming at 4 am than hearing trains (in the distance mind you). I suppose my love for trains has some bias in that statement though.

[:(!] Fricken garbage trucks suck !!!! There are 4 buildings where I live and each one has a different pickup day. Between them one shows almost every day of the week. WTF are these guys thinking showing up at 5-6 AM. I get so POed at these A holes (I know it's not the drivers fault)!!!!!!

Ok off the [soapbox]

[JDV5th]

I know its not related, but why do these garbage companies start so early? It's certainly not a time sensitive commodity! Why not start at 7 am like the rest of the world?

[Rodney Beck]

Hi group

The engineer must blow (2) longs (1) short and (1) long at all public grade crossings as per the rules, except for certian hours as per timetable special instructions for quiet zones then we ring the bell until the crossing is occupied, the exception to the quiet zone is when passing a train on the opposing track the we must blow for the crossing.

Rodney

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JDV5th

I know its not related, but why do these garbage companies start so early? It's certainly not a time sensitive commodity! Why not start at 7 am like the rest of the world?

To avoid the traffic of others..

If they worked 8 to 5 they would get stuck in both rush hours . So, by starting earlier they avoid the worse of the 2 drive times.

My garbage company recently adjusted their routes and now picks up my trash at 1PM instead of the previous 5:30 AM. So I've gone from the begining of their work day to the end

[JDV5th]

Thanks for the garbage info. That is a reasonable thing to do to avoid a rush hour. That's really nice to do it in the PM.

[Anonymous]

What i find annoying are the garbage men who slam the garbage cans onto the edge of the trucks, making all those banging noises..

Seems like they should have to fill out a mountain of paperwork anytime they have to bang the cans on the trucks, that way we would at least know that when they did it, they had no other choice... [}:)]