Neighbors at the crossroad

Everybody loves a train. Indeed, I moved to my house in Lake Pleasant, MA (western MA) because it is near the train and my nephew (4) loves it.
However, one thing I didn't know when I bought my house was that the trains would be parked there for days at a time with the engines on.
Last summer this was a weekly occurrence and the average time was 2 full days. The longest I logged was 4 days.
I wear ear muffs (the heavy duty kind worn by jackhammers and, still, the cycling prevents me from working (I have a home office.) and sleeping.
Yesterday, Sunday, the train was there for 11 hours. (Pan Am Railways)

Welcome, hadit!

I'm not sure where Lake Pleasant is, or of which railroad company you're speaking. There's a Lake Pleasant in (at least) New York, Arizona, and Massachusetts, and you could be speaking about a freight railroad company or a passenger line.

Since trains and nearby homes are a wider issue than just commuter railroads, I'm moving this topic to the Railroad Operations and Facilities forum. However, please keep in mind that while communities have negotiated noise agreements with railroad companies,the railroads have been here longer than most of the houses and all of the residents. You may not find much sympathy here, but as long as you're polite and willing to respect other points of view, you should find RAILROAD.NET a useful place to visit.

You stated in your post that you're in Massachusetts and the railroad in question is Pan Am. From your description it would seem that this has been happening for a while. You might check with your local municipal authorities to determine whether they already have this matter up with the railroad--and you may find that they do and are getting nowhere. However, I know there have been instances when local authorities have succeeded in working with a railroad to get them to park the equipment somewhere else. It is often not operationally feasible to shut down the diesel locomotives, although the problem is being worked on in the industry.

Lake Pleasant is just west of Millers Falls on the Pan Am (ex-Guilford, Boston & Maine, Fitchburg, Vermont & Massachusetts) East/West freight main. I believe it is a section of the Town of Montague.

First reply:
You sound like a very nice person (even if you are an ex-con!). Thanks for your message.

Do you know anything about the laws in MA? Because I was doing some research on this today and they say we have a newly passed, federally enforceable state regulation prohibiting all unnecessary diesel locomotive idling for more than 30 minutes. Apparently the EPA has determined that diesel exhaust is highly carcinogenic.

I don't think the town is going to be any help, although some of us are going to the selectboard next week. Our town manager told me he lives in another part of the town where the trains also park. He woke up once in the middle of the night and couldn't breathe from the fumes.

This is what I really can't understand- there is a good spot just a little ways down the track where dispatch says the trains are supposed to park. However, according to them, the drivers want to park at the crossroad because it's easier for them to grab a cab from there. Is it really possible that a driver could care so little for other people that he would do it for that reason?!!

When I was a teenager, over 40 years ago, I used to love to walk a couple of miles to the railroad yard. The guys would let me ride with them up and down the track when they were working on the trains. They were great!

I have read about quiet zones, but I don't want us to have one because I love the sound of the horns. I can't believe I'm basically battling with the railroad.

Second message- You're absolutely right, Edbear. It's a village of 330 within the town of Montague. We have our own little post office and we all have a PO Box where we pick up our mail every day.

edbear wrote:Lake Pleasant is just west of Millers Falls on the Pan Am (ex-Guilford, Boston & Maine, Fitchburg, Vermont & Massachusetts) East/West freight main. I believe it is a section of the Town of Montague.

correct, Montague has five villages Turners Falls, Millers Falls, Montague Center, Montague city (both called Montague) and Lake pleasant.

The train crews can't just park a train where they feel like it. That's not how it works. The dispatchers tell the crew where to part. They may get orders from the officials of the company. If a train is parked out of the yard, there may be several reasons. The yard may be at capacity, and can't take the train in. Another reason is if the crew ran out of time. It is a serious federal crime to run past 12 hrs. In busy seasons, it may take time to find another crew. There may not be another crew rested for duty. I think a call to the company HQ in N. Billerica would be a first step. The commonwealth might be next. One can still argue that the tracks have been there for at least 100 years before you moved in.

the even got their story published in the local paper, trying to get the EPA involved
I guess and idling locomotive is loud and smelly, these poor people having to have to endure that

http://www.recorder.com/article/montagu ... ins-idling

MONTAGUE — Residents of Millers Falls and Lake Pleasant villages are fed up with loud, smelly locomotives idling for hours — sometimes days — close to their homes.
“I wear the things jackhammer (operators) wear and I still can’t sleep,” Jeri Case told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday.

>>One can still argue that the tracks have been there for at least 100 years before you moved in.

I can buy that argument better when it comes to issues like horns or frequency of trains. If locomotives do idle there for up to two days, and that's documented, then I can see why they want some action on it. I lived by a Sante Fe line for a year, and the through trains didn't bother me. But I know that I wouldn't have wanted idling diesels outside my apartment, either, not for that length of time.

Alloy wrote:>>One can still argue that the tracks have been there for at least 100 years before you moved in.

I can buy that argument better when it comes to issues like horns or frequency of trains. If locomotives do idle there for up to two days, and that's documented, then I can see why they want some action on it. I lived by a Sante Fe line for a year, and the through trains didn't bother me. But I know that I wouldn't have wanted idling diesels outside my apartment, either, not for that length of time.

The trains have probably been idling there for 100 years, only before diesel it was low grade coal smoke. The trains are on railroad property doing something that is legal under current federal law. There is a 50/50 chance that the railroads property deed predates most of these whiny people.

I see the same thing a lot with farming. People move in to a picture perfect small town, and then start calling the police to file noise complaints about stinky smelly tractors putting by at six am. That's followed up by complaints about spreading manure and how bad it makes the whole area smell for a few days. They try all of the same tactics about the drinking water blah blah.

A few local communities have smartened up and passed "right to farm" bylaws basically telling people if you don't like the smells and sounds of farming don't live here, the farm was here long before you.

hadit wrote:First reply:
You sound like a very nice person (even if you are an ex-con!). Thanks for your message.

Do you know anything about the laws in MA? Because I was doing some research on this today and they say we have a newly passed, federally enforceable state regulation prohibiting all unnecessary diesel locomotive idling for more than 30 minutes. Apparently the EPA has determined that diesel exhaust is highly carcinogenic.

I don't think the town is going to be any help, although some of us are going to the selectboard next week. Our town manager told me he lives in another part of the town where the trains also park. He woke up once in the middle of the night and couldn't breathe from the fumes.

This is what I really can't understand- there is a good spot just a little ways down the track where dispatch says the trains are supposed to park. However, according to them, the drivers want to park at the crossroad because it's easier for them to grab a cab from there. Is it really possible that a driver could care so little for other people that he would do it for that reason?!!

When I was a teenager, over 40 years ago, I used to love to walk a couple of miles to the railroad yard. The guys would let me ride with them up and down the track when they were working on the trains. They were great!

I have read about quiet zones, but I don't want us to have one because I love the sound of the horns. I can't believe I'm basically battling with the railroad.

Second message- You're absolutely right, Edbear. It's a village of 330 within the town of Montague. We have our own little post office and we all have a PO Box where we pick up our mail every day.

Bet the railroad was there before you moved in. So I would suggest moving or learning to deal with it. BTW a railroad company can idle as long as it wants, the federal EPA whiny crying EPA rule doesn't really effect railroad operations, particularly in cold winter, spring and fall weather where it is a pain in the ass to restart a cold diesel, you may have to drain the coolant to shut it down. Also there is no proof that diesel smoke is harmful, just more crying whining EPA Jimmy Carter crap. The only choices you have is moving or learning to deal.

They have started a petition, even asked my wife if she lived in montague and was willing to sign it.
I am not really sure what they hope to accomplish with this "petition"