LV Potters....

Potters has been a silent crossing for years but a freight has been blasting it's way through for the last 4 minutes. In fact I'm thinking it's not moving very fast. Tempted to drive over but the sound is fading. Wondering what would cause a freight to blast hard for minutes at a time? All crossing gates not working? Interesting...

There was a short in the horn button. every time the bell was rung the horn would also blow. Gotta love buttons.

It was funny, the next day I was out working in the yard and two of my neighbors mentioned hearing the "prolonged train whistles" the night before. One of them even went out on the porch, even though we're too far away.
I'm working from home today and I hear them doing the two long - one short pattern this morning over on the LV. Must be something up with the crossing if they are blowing the horns again. It's nice, like old times….

Good, may all the buttons short so every train blows its horn through the stupid "Quiet Zones." Why do people buy houses next to a friggin RR track if they don't want to listen to horns?!

I remember being out in Edison (Tingley Lane) shooting pictures with some friends one day when this self centered jerk stopped by on his bike and started talking about how he was going to "get the trains moved off of this line" because it was too dangerous to have them around his precious children. Needless to say, my friends and I had a good laugh at this idiot and his attitude. I'd like to encounter the same jerk again (some 20 years or so later) and ask him how his "campaign" to get those nasty trains moved away from his precious spawn went, now that the 2nd main track has been relaid and there are more freights running on the line than ever. LOL

Stupid NIMBYs. Don't like the RR? Don't buy a house near one!

Good, may all the buttons short so every train blows its horn through the stupid "Quiet Zones." Why do people buy houses next to a friggin RR track if they don't want to listen to horns?!

Amen..! I loved being at the township meetings and hearing people complain that the new homes they bought were near the "train tracks" (as they called them) and how the trains were "too loud, especially at night"... I always wanted to say "crews turn the up the volume on the horns at night time - this is common knowledge..." -- but I resisted. In all seriousness I do not like quiet zones. I still cannot "blast through" the Inman Ave crossing knowing that an approaching train is not obligated to blow that horn.
Tingley Ln is a great spot, btw, and one of my usual haunts. There is a nice stretch of mainline right behind Oak Ridge Park, as well, just where Featherbed Ln crosses into Clark. It used to be the golf course, now it's a park. I used to watch trains there when they were LV, NW etc... Wish I'd carried a camera more often back then.

As of late yesterday they were still blowing the horn on the mainline.

The satellite view from Google even shows a train going through:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Oak+R ... cb1ddc4dba" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Trains are louder at night because of less noise interference from the world not volumes being turned up. Can't do that on new locos with the button activated horns. As far as noise is concerned, yeah they moved near tracks but even a big fan like me will tell you the horns are out of control loud today. Back in the Conrail days, they mostly had Leslie 3 chime horns that did the job well. Come the split in '99, came the K5LA's which obviously are a little louder but the newer K5 variations on the gevos and 70ACe/70M-2's are way too damn loud. I can see where that will drive even tolerant people nuts. Any of us who railfan know what it's like to get our eardrums blown out by these new horns. It has gotten to the point of rediculous with horn volume- all of which is unnecessary. Horn volume has never been a factor in grade crossing collisions and never will. Yes horns need to be sounded, but that doesn't give the FRA/Railroads a right to create excessive noise either. These new horns (the K5LLA on EMD's and K5HL's on GE's) go way beyond what's needed to safely alert traffic.

I noticed this the other day too -- maybe it was track work? Or just a rebellious engineer?
How do they prevent that from happening - is there a way to tell -- do they have penalties?
God forbid if there is a disaster at one of these silent xings - a kid or biker etc -- I wonder who would be pointing fingers...
Either way, I imagine its not fun barreling through little Delhi during rush hour with no horn...

These new horns (the K5LLA on EMD's and K5HL's on GE's) go way beyond what's needed to safely alert traffic.

In other words, "built to annoy...".
I have to confess I don't know the particular horns, some sound better than others to me. I have to google them to hear what they sound like. It's like the birders, they hear a birdsong and know immediately what it is without seeing it.

CRR wrote:I noticed this the other day too -- maybe it was track work? Or just a rebellious engineer?
How do they prevent that from happening - is there a way to tell -- do they have penalties?
God forbid if there is a disaster at one of these silent xings - a kid or biker etc -- I wonder who would be pointing fingers...
Either way, I imagine its not fun barreling through little Delhi during rush hour with no horn...

I will take operating a train through a quiet zone any day, over having to lay on the horn constantly across the Port Reading Secondary "shooting gallery."

You guys need to stop with the silly false safety concerns. Just admit you like trains, and you get excited when you hear the horn. The quiet zones aren't going away. There will be more in the future.

Well I have to say quiet zones are no good. And yes safety concerns are VERY important. However, the same person who complains about the horn noise, would also blame the RR when a family member gets hit by a train because they didn't here it coming. Anyway my reason for disliking quiet zones is because all people have to do is complain about noise and the RR company gets down on one knee and apologizes for noise and promises to be quiet. My point is RR's should stop catering to nimby-type people. I'm all for being a good neighbor, but fair is fair, and a relationship is a two way street.

I'll end this by saying that horns should sound like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSou1Kx0veY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Although I can fully understand how RR engineers get tired of having their ears blown out. (I work in a very loud business myself)

You guys need to stop with the silly false safety concerns. Just admit you like trains, and you get excited when you hear the horn.

Guilty as charged. Love trains, love a good train horn.
I also admit to living just far enough away from it to remember how "pleasant" it was to hear at 2am (not a joke) and then hear the rumble as it went by. And it's interesting that my non-railfan neighbors mentioned it the next day.

However, I have real concerns, justifiable or not, regarding safety zones. I asked some of the locals about it, they all know about it being a quiet zone. Same concerns.
Sh*t breaks - and a massive train barreling through a crossing without a horn without sounding....? Two planes flying across the ocean in opposite directions should NEVER be close to enough to hit each other, but THAT almost happened just last week...
At some point down the line, it'll happen... and it may seem trite to be concerned but I was always taught safety-first....
Just my two-cents.

The problem is, most of you complaining about quiet zones have no idea how the improved technology works, or the procedures that the TOWN must go through to establish them.

It isn't a simple case that the town complains about the noise, and the RR starts shaking in their shoes and rushes to implement them. The municipality requesting the quiet zone must pay for the equipment needed to make the crossing quiet zone compliant. They must also assume all liability at that crossing. The railroad doesn't pay for it.

Even the most basic quiet zone must have full gates, and speed predictive train sensing technology. The equipment box must also have a functioning power indicator light. If any of those are absent, you can't have a quiet zone.

The problem is, most of you complaining about quiet zones have no idea how the improved technology works, or the procedures that the TOWN must go through to establish them.

I work in technology with a comp-sci and engineering background, so I get the technology. I attended the Edison township meetings when this was in full swing (albeit I was there for something totally unrelated) and learned as much as was possible about how it works. I promise we are not luddites. I also know things break, no matter how well engineered. Yes I know how the crossings work and there should be no way it could ever possibly happen. I REALLY do get that. But you can't undo a lifetime of "Operation Safety" and having a great concern, simply, for simple common sense. It's cultural, I grew up in a time when you'd never even think of having a silent crossing. So - I admit to being guilty of perhaps "worrying too much" and I should just barrel through as mindlessly as the others that live there.
But I do understand very well how the technology works. And yes I miss hearing the occasional horn off in the distance. I'll just leave it at that.

Nothing is fool proof. But its hard to run the gates when there is an island median, or jersey barrier and four quad gates.
However, there are sensors in the road, inside the gated area. If there is a car inside when the gates come down the outbound gates stay raised, the yellow 'x' does not flash and the train will be required to blow the horn.

Was at the Potter crossing the other day and was DELAYED by a train, NOT, but on the other side of the street which traffic usually backs up across the tracks due to a traffic light close by was a car stuck between the gates with an eastbound barreling towards the crossing. And the driver was going apes--t on where to go before becoming mincemeat and didn't notice that the second gate was up for an escape route!!!!
So he finally backed up and hit the gate and almost rammed the car in back of him.
But why isn't there signage indicating that if stuck on the crossing the second gate stays up for a safe exit?
I really didn't know this either until I saw the crossing with a target car in line with a train!!!

As all that's there is don't stop on the tracks, which at rush hour is really hard to avoid.

At least the engineer had a good chuckle!!!