Train Horn sound.

[Anonymous]

What ever happend to the good ol' days of useing the proper way of blowing this type of Train horn:----------,----------,o,--------------------. Allan.

[eolafan]

Like just about everything else these days, many engineers (seem to) take the easy way out and blow whatever they feel like...as long as they blow for crossings.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan

Like just about everything else these days, many engineers (seem to) take the easy way out and blow whatever they feel like...as long as they blow for crossings.

I see. So much for the older days. Allan.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Like just about everything else these days, many engineers (seem to) take the easy way out and blow whatever they feel like...as long as they blow for crossings.

I once heard an engineer blow "Shave and a Haircut" while coming to a crossing. I wasn't at there, but I could hear it from across the woods.

[Anonymous]

On the caltrain line at night when the UP cement train is working on some nights it comes out like: ---------------,o,o,o,----------,o
and that really messes me up when i hear it
also sometimes at day when some commuters are running it comes out like
---------,o,o,o,o,---
which again makes me think double time

[David_Telesha]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BNSFrailfan

What ever happend to the good ol' days of useing the proper way of blowing this type of Train horn:----------,----------,o,--------------------. Allan.

Um, nothing?

[Dutchrailnut]

The two long short and long is still in any rulebook to be used at crossings.
Any engineer should adhere to that rule cause after a crossing accident the black box is downloaded, not complying will get you in big legal trouble bot for keeping your job and for lawsuits.

[Randy Stahl]

Improper whistle signals is an operating failure . Rule compliance includes whistle signals and if an engineer is caught he will likely be given an efficiency failure.

[PBenham]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl

Improper whistle signals is an operating failure . Rule compliance includes whistle signals and if an engineer is caught he will likely be given an efficiency failure.

Considering that many newer units have an automatic crossing signal function it should not be a problem, but it is one, I hear non-standard horn signals at crossings near my home frequently. A friend told me that the non-standard signals are often used in frustration when people run the crossing ahead of a train, in motor vehicles, on bicycles (the worst group I'm told) and pedestrians (crossing and playing "chicken") The level of ignorance about trains outside the employee/railfan communities is a pretty sad statement on the state of the general[V] population these days!

[eolafan]

Where I railfan at Eola Terminal Yard on BNSF in Aurora, IL a man frequently brings his young blind son to listen to the trains at the crossing there and he records the sounds so horn "style" means a lot to him. Well, one Amtrak enteineer on the SW Chief sounds "shave and a haircut, two bits" for him when he sees him and you can just see the glow on the face of that kid when this happens..just goes to show there is still some little bit of kindness in this world with some people.

[coborn35]

QUOTE: Originally posted by David_Telesha

QUOTE: Originally posted by BNSFrailfan

What ever happend to the good ol' days of useing the proper way of blowing this type of Train horn:----------,----------,o,--------------------. Allan.

Um, nothing?

No kidding.

But the oddest horn blow for a crossing would have to be (and I was in the loco at the time) -------------------------,------------------------------,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,-------------------,0,0,0,0

[jchnhtfd]

Most guys will blow the rule crossing signal. Unless someone is hanging around looking dangerous. In which case... he or she will blow pretty dang near anything that they hope will get some attention.

[Anonymous]

Well with the BNSF and the FRA breathing down our necks on blowing the whistle, these engineers on the BNSF better watch them selves. Since early this past summer the FRA made the rule that if traveling under 45 mph you can only blow the whistle for no more than 20 seconds, and then after a car, train accident near Hastings NE. the railroad came back and said no less than 15 sec. and no more than 20 sec. when traveling under 45mph, at 45 mph and over start at whistle board. And if you don't blow the correct 2 longs a short and a long you will get a operations test failure, and if they catch you blowing under 15 sec. they will pull the engineer and conductor from service and take alternative handling. The railroad and FRA is getting really strict on the issue.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bnsfengineer

Well with the BNSF and the FRA breathing down our necks on blowing the whistle, these engineers on the BNSF better watch them selves. Since early this past summer the FRA made the rule that if traveling under 45 mph you can only blow the whistle for no more than 20 seconds, and then after a car, train accident near Hastings NE. the railroad came back and said no less than 15 sec. and no more than 20 sec. when traveling under 45mph, at 45 mph and over start at whistle board. And if you don't blow the correct 2 longs a short and a long you will get a operations test failure, and if they catch you blowing under 15 sec. they will pull the engineer and conductor from service and take alternative handling. The railroad and FRA is getting really strict on the issue.

GOOD! It's about D@MN time.
Allan.

[Anonymous]

The two long, one short, one long is the standard for approaching grade crossings. In fact it is required to blow five seconds for each long, three seconds for each short. As silly as this seems this is what the weed weesels test crews for. If an improper horn signal is not given, it is the entire crew that can get a failure, not just the hoghead.

[tree68]

I most generally hear the proper signal, but have occasionally gotten an extra toot or two from a friendly engineer after he's past the crossing.

[trainfan1221]

Around here they mostly blow the right warning, but take shortcuts. I do remember from a brief cab ride that the last horn blast is supposed to last until the train is actually on the crossing.

[Anonymous]

On Fri night, was coming back into town on our little local approaching one of the main drags, hoghead blows the correct horn signal, a couple of cars of teenage punks then begin blowing their horns at us acting like jerks, hoghead flips them the bird and after getting the pwr and about 2 cars over the xing, stops to **** the drivers off. We sat there for a min then begin slowly pulling. By time rear cleared, a mainliner came by and had the xing blocked for about an additional 3 min. That served the little teenage punks right if you ask me.

[AntonioFP45]

Here in Hillsbourough County, FL I live near the CSX mainline. IMHO, engineers blow the correct crossing grade sequence 99% of the time. Sometimes they will give a friendly "toot" to railfans.

A long while back I was very surprised when I saw the Amtrak Silver Star whipping by as usual at close to 70 mph. This engineer only blew toots for the two grade crossings that were less than 1/4 mile apart! Perhaps this engineer was tired or had a headache as K5 horns are quite loud, but I now wonder if a CSX official would have written him up for that.

[Murphy Siding]

The Ellis & Eastern gravel train just pulled through town, 4 blocks down the street. You can hear it coming a long ways away, thanks to grade crossings evenly spaced about a block apart. Today, just by the sound of the horn, I could tell that it wasn't the usual engineer tooting the horn.[^]

[alstom]

I while back in Berea, OH, I saw CSX 8234 (SD40-2) blow it's horn three long times. Each for about 10 seconds. Kind of weird.

And once at Fostoria, CSX 7310 (C40-8W) laid on it's horn for a car that drove out in front of it. That's reasonable.

And at Berea once again, I also heard CSX 613 (AC6000CW) blow short, short, long, short. The opposite of the "true" sequence. They should've gotten written up for this if an official was around.

Once, at Berea again, CSX 674, blew toot, toot, toot, toot when he saw me, then never bothered for the Front St. xing yards ahead.

They toot up here alot, and that is reasonable, but I have heard the sequence not blown various times. It should be stopped.

...............

[Anonymous]

I do hear alot of Trains blow their horns the proper way. But there are others who are still breaking the rules. Allan.

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by alstom

I while back in Berea, OH, I saw CSX 8234 (SD40-2) blow it's horn three long times. Each for about 10 seconds. Kind of weird.

Sometimes that's a function of not letting off the horn long enough between "toots."

[Gluefinger]

Don't anyone tell me you never slack off on some of the annoying rules at your job...

How would you like it if a stranger was criticizing how you did your work?

[dekemd]

What are you supposed to do when crossings are really close together? I have seen crossing that were only 50 yards apart. I don't see how you could get the proper horn sequence in unless you were going slow.

[samfp1943]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl

Improper whistle signals is an operating failure . Rule compliance includes whistle signals and if an engineer is caught he will likely be given an efficiency failure.

Randy seems to have nailed this issue. The RULES have no room for individuality, Compliance is mandatory, but sometimes "stuff" happens. Kinda like a truck driver who misses a shift while showing off, gets a big long,
gggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiinnnnnnddddddddddddd!
Instead of a smooth shift, maybe the engineers have a truck driver moment??

[:I][:I][%-)][%-)][:-^]
Sam

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Gluefinger

Don't anyone tell me you never slack off on some of the annoying rules at your job...
How would you like it if a stranger was criticizing how you did your work?

Depends - do you want me slacking off some of those "annoying rules" when I'm taking care of your medical emergency?[;)]

This thread is less about what anyone is doing wrong than it is about the numerous ways the task is being done. I haven't read anything about engineers not blowing for crossings at all.

Everything here is based on what we've heard ourselves. I doubt any engineer is going to admit that sometimes he gets bored and tries to mimic a San Francisco cablecar conductor (they've been known to develop some pretty elaborate bell routines). Or discover that they've misjudged the distance to the crossing and have to fill up some "dead air..." I'm sure that off-the-record you might get some interesting stories.

Those of us trackside don't always have the whole story, either. When I was on my cab ride last fall the conductor gave some info via radio to the engineer, who was at that moment pretty busy. Instead of freeing up a hand to key the radio, he just added a couple of toots on the whistle (he was in the process of blowing for a crossing) in acknowledgement. Mission accomplished, but from trackside, he "did it wrong."

Every hobby has its nitpickers, and there's a bit of nitpicker in all of us.

[csxengineer98]

What are you supposed to do when crossings are really close together? I have seen crossing that were only 50 yards apart. I don't see how you could get the proper horn sequence in unless you were going slow.

our rule book has a rule to cover that...you blow the nomral 14-L starting at the first crossing and you can strech it out to cover the whole group insted of blowing it for each crossing.. but that is only if the crossings are grouped close together..

as far as horn blowing..there are a whole list of horn signals that engineers are supost to use for many differnt things..and if the RFE or TM is a real ***..can and will write you up for not useing them... case in point..any time a train starts out from a stop..its supost to toot 2 short blasts on the horn..backing up..3 short blasts..passing a standing train on the main line when your going aginst the current of traffic (you to are both going say west..and the DS runs you around a stopped train that is on #1 main track that is normaly used for west bound traffic on #2 main track going west) your supost to blow a long and short around any curves and anywhere that vistion might be restricted to warn any crewman that might be doing an inspection on the train as well as the head end and rear end... also under some subdivition rules.. you might have to blow it for approching bridges and tunnels to warn people that might be where they arnt supost to be that your comeing..

csx engineer 

[wabash1]

The two long, one short, one long is the standard for approaching grade crossings. In fact it is required to blow five seconds for each long, three seconds for each short. As silly as this seems this is what the weed weesels test crews for. If an improper horn signal is not given, it is the entire crew that can get a failure, not just the hoghead.

The FRA man told me that the horn is to be blown for 15sec but no more than 20 sec and at speeds above 45 mph you start at the whistle board and if the whistle board is not at the right distance you start where you need to start to blow it right. there is no rule as to how long to blow a long or a short.  and there is no time as to how long to blow for the crossing. In other words at 45 mph  if i blow for 3 sec a long wait 5 sec and then blow again for 3 sec a 1sec short then a 3 sec long that is fine.  if running 25 mph i start blowing at what would allow me to be in the 20 sec max blowing remember it does not haft to be continous blowing as most people get this mixed up. and if i blow short blast on the horn mixed with standard whistle blowing its because of railroad employees standing there and the fra says short blast to get railroad employees attetion is priority.

[Namerifrats]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bnsfengineer

Well with the BNSF and the FRA breathing down our necks on blowing the whistle, these engineers on the BNSF better watch them selves. Since early this past summer the FRA made the rule that if traveling under 45 mph you can only blow the whistle for no more than 20 seconds, and then after a car, train accident near Hastings NE. the railroad came back and said no less than 15 sec. and no more than 20 sec. when traveling under 45mph, at 45 mph and over start at whistle board. And if you don't blow the correct 2 longs a short and a long you will get a operations test failure, and if they catch you blowing under 15 sec. they will pull the engineer and conductor from service and take alternative handling. The railroad and FRA is getting really strict on the issue.

GOOD! It's about D@MN time.
Allan.

 

Gotta love a railbuff getting a hard-on at the possibility of a railroader losing his job