Requirement of Trains' Horn Use on Street Crossings

Who do I talk to about horns being too insane lately? I've always loved the sounds of the trains. I've grown up with them and they're even a comfort. Just a sound of home to me. Once in a blue moon, they'd be a little crazy for the middle of the night. But, I've never been too upset with that.

Lately, however, the horns have been so loud and go on for so long. And, sometimes they seem like they're just messing around with the horn just for fun. This is NO GOOD for the middle of the night. I have an 8 month old baby. She normally sleeps through the horns. But, lately, they wake her up because they run and keep on running for SOOO LONG. I need to know who to speak to about this. I'm sorry if this all sounds stupid or ignorant. But, I AM BEYOND SLEEP DEPRIVED RIGHT NOW. I JUST NEED SOME FREAKING SLEEP. So, I want to know if there's any hope for sleep in my future if I can find someone to beg to stop the horn insanity! Anyone know how to help me here? I'm just a new mother in desperation of some decent rest. ...if only the train horns would calm down and honk like they used to... Is there some sort of "train police" I can request help from? How does that all work? I can never see if it's a passenger train or other train since it's the middle of the night and I'm inside of my home trying to sleep.

The trains are required by federal law to blow their horns at crossings. If you feel the need to do something about it, consider contacting your city hall, which, if warranted, can petition to have a quiet zone instituted on sections of track near residential areas. Please remember though, that the horns are for the safety of the public. Another option is to move further away from the tracks.

Welcome, gigi!

Mr. kaitoku has it right - under Federal law, trains are required to sound their horns at grade crossings. You can try contacting city hall and your representatives to get a quiet zone installed (especially if you have the support of your neighbors with a petition.) On many busy mainlines through residential areas, they've reduced the noise drastically.

I suppose you could try to contact the railroad company directly, though the best you'd get from that is, "Well, we have to run our trains to survive as a company, and we have to sound our horns to ensure your and our safety." They might give you a little more information about why and when the horns are sounding at night, but almost certainly won't do anything to make them quieter. Good luck regardless, and I hope your little one learns to sleep through the noise.

you can get foam ear plugs with noise reduction rating of 33 -

I work nights and no one gives me the slightest consideration when I'm sleeping during the day, these work.

Moderator's Note: moving this topic to the Railroad Operations subforum, though a link will remain here. While you're there, take a look at the other threads - one or more deal with this same sort of topic, and may even be local to you.

Now let's reverse the situation. Let's say you get a quiet zone into place. Then some night you go to a party....maybe one two many strong Daquiris (sic). You don't hear the train. Windows up, Kenny G tape blasting and...................WHAM! You end up in the hospital with a big bill to pay, but suddenly its the railroad's fault (according to YOU), and you wanna sue.

Ma'am, you have no idea what it feels like to be in the cab and watch helplessly as the gates come down and this car just races you to the crossing! You can see little kids and a baby in a car seat, and this person has no intention of stopping. You grip the armrest as the little compact car DISAPPEARS under the nose of the engine!!!! I've seen grown men with tears in their eyes, sitting on the steps of the engine after just hitting somebody, or killing a little baby---even blaming themselves (at first) when, actually, IT IS THE FAULT OF THE DRIVER, not the train crew. Perhaps this is the case in the "horn-happy" (in your opinion) engineer; he's gone thru this very thing, and he wants to make SURE drivers hear the train.

People want their freight, but they don't want to wait for the train. They think the train is supposed to just STOP, even all commerce halt, to suit them. With all due kindness, this is the "me-me-me-me" era. Everything is all about "ME". We move in next to the airport and expect the airplanes to abate their activities to suit us--even expect to be PAID for "inconvenience". Chances are, the railroad AND the airport were there-----LONG before people moved in! But we expect them to modify their activities to suit "Me-me-me".

Here's another suggestion. I don't know how close you are to the railroad, but this is what I do to abate noise---especially loud dog-barking and sirens during the night. Turn on a small 10" fan with the non-oscillate feature. Face it away from your bed if its winter. Do this in every room where people are having trouble sleeping due the trains. It acts as an anti-noise feature and cancels out many noises during the night. The steady, small drone of the fan lulls one to sleep and provides just enough damping to cull out noise! I can't guarantee this will work for you, but, as I said, I do this most every night, and it really does cancel out the noise! Try it!


GF

GF,

Excellent post!

It is an awful thing to watch a car disappear under the nose of your locomotive, and have to sit there hoping to see it re-emerge on the opposite side. A woman drove in front of my locomotive during a switching move once in South Carolina. She was moving from my right to left. I had at least half the crossing covered when she tried this.

To my amazement, she got by. I watched as she continued up the street, swerving from side to side, obviously drunk. I remember wondering where she was going that was so important that she would try something like that.

A young woman in South Dakota complained to me bitterly of the noise of the trains in the railroad yard she lived next to. I asked her if the rail yard was there at the time she bought the house. This may seem a little callus, but what else could she expect to hear? I lived next to the same yard myself.

I now live 3 1/2 blocks from the UP main line in Nebraska. I don't even notice the sound of the trains. My cat sleeps with me.
He doesn't notice the trains either, unless a steam train goes by. Although the steam train is no louder than the Diesel trains, the sound of the whistle will wake him up every time.

Les

The federal regulations are very specific about the sounding of the bell and horn for grade crossings. The punishment for failure to comply can be quite severe, especially if there is an accident at the crossing. Having said that, myself and others that I have worked with would try to choke back the horn at night, in deference to those sleeping in the communities we passed through. However, after hearing about several cases of collisions at crossings at other railroads and the ensuing lawsuits/FRA actions, and several close calls on ours, I do not hold back no matter the time of day or size of crossing. And in my current position as a DSLE (Designated Supervisor of Locomotive Engineers) I have advised all engineers that I work with not to either. I'm not going to let some snake-skin lawyer ruin my or my co-workers career because we tried to be nice. As harsh as it may sound, kaitoku's advise is the best, petition the city for a quiet zone.

rovetherr wrote:The federal regulations are very specific about the sounding of the bell and horn for grade crossings. The punishment for failure to comply can be quite severe, especially if there is an accident at the crossing. Having said that, myself and others that I have worked with would try to choke back the horn at night, in deference to those sleeping in the communities we passed through. However, after hearing about several cases of collisions at crossings at other railroads and the ensuing lawsuits/FRA actions, and several close calls on ours, I do not hold back no matter the time of day or size of crossing. And in my current position as a DSLE (Designated Supervisor of Locomotive Engineers) I have advised all engineers that I work with not to either. I'm not going to let some snake-skin lawyer ruin my or my co-workers career because we tried to be nice. As harsh as it may sound, kaitoku's advise is the best, petition the city for a quiet zone.

Even today, in retirement, when I hear that Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-- (danger or collision signal), I start to tense up inside because I know somebody is about to hit.
I think, "Oh sh--".

It amazing how little regard people have for trains. Me, I'm 'skeered' of 'em! And folks think trains should just stop operating because they moved in next door.
Don't want noise? Don't move next to a railroad track

GF

Are there kids / adults hanging out near the tracks at night? If the length of the blasts have got longer recently this may be the cause, we generally make REAL sure you hear us if you are walking / standing near the tracks.

The FRA has no guidelines on how loud to blow horn, that is pure engineer perogative.
I like to tell my students to save a bit for emergencies.
only Mechanical rule is in CFR 49-229 as for what minimum a horn can produce.

gigi wrote:Who do I talk to about horns being too insane lately?

1) You can petition the city to work with the railroad to establish a quiet zone. You might have an 8 year old rather than an 8 month old by the time this happens.
2) You can ask the railroad if there have been any "incidents" which have alarmed engineers. They have some amount of discretion about how they blow the long-long-short-long sequence, and if they've gotten scared, they're going to be more aggressive about blowing their horn.
3) If the problem is pedestrians, you could support Operation Lifesaver at your local school, let the railroad know you're doing that, and ask them to be quieter.
4) If the problem is motorists, you could write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper explaining the situation and asking people not to scare the engineers. A lot of people don't realize that 1) trains can't stop, and 2) the only control that an engineer has is to blow the whistle. All it takes is one idiot going around a gate in front of an engine to make an engineer (and everyone she works with) to blow their whistle longer and louder.

They're not going to NOT blow the whistle at all, because that experiment was tried in Florida and the accident rate doubled.

https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0104

DutchRailnut wrote:The FRA has no guidelines on how loud to blow horn, that is pure engineer perogative.
I like to tell my students to save a bit for emergencies.
only Mechanical rule is in CFR 49-229 as for what minimum a horn can produce.

I thought that the signalling on crosssing approach was 2 long, 1 short, 1 long.

railfan365 wrote:

DutchRailnut wrote:The FRA has no guidelines on how loud to blow horn, that is pure engineer perogative.
I like to tell my students to save a bit for emergencies.
only Mechanical rule is in CFR 49-229 as for what minimum a horn can produce.

I thought that the signalling on crosssing approach was 2 long, 1 short, 1 long.

It is, The FRA does not mandate how loud it should be, that is Engineers perogative...

DutchRailnut wrote:

railfan365 wrote:

DutchRailnut wrote:The FRA has no guidelines on how loud to blow horn, that is pure engineer perogative.
I like to tell my students to save a bit for emergencies.
only Mechanical rule is in CFR 49-229 as for what minimum a horn can produce.

I thought that the signalling on crosssing approach was 2 long, 1 short, 1 long.

It is, The FRA does not mandate how loud it should be, that is Engineers perogative...

Thanks, Dutch. Now I got the difference.