Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
I can see where that would be rather inconvenient when you are trying to get to sleep. It does remind me of trying to sleep on some of the longer Amtrak trips I have taken.
I grew up about a third of a mile from some train tracks, but they did not use their horn that often, they only had two cross roads near by, so you only heard the horn twice. The trains that are 1.6 miles away from my condo use their horns day and night, but at that distance I only notice them in nice weather when I have the windows open at night.
I can see why nobody uses that as a ringtone on their smart phone.
At the risk of putting you to sleep...The difference today is that when and how horns must be sounded at public crossings is a matter of exclusive federal jurisdiction. That was necessitated primarily by local governmental bodies passing ordinances prohibiting the sounding of horns. Local ordinances were causing a lot of confusion. For example, a train would pass through one township with no ban, enter another township with a ban and then reenter the township without a ban, all in a matter of minutes. The same problem has been the basis for state wide laws regarding cell phone use while driving that preempt/invalidate local ordinances.
So today, horns must be sounded at all public crossings unless what is called a "quiet zone" has been established. You don't see a lot of them because they are usually expensive to establish. The applicable federal regs require the municipality wanting a QZ to commission a traffic study. Based on that study, various types of crossing upgrades are usually required, including flashing lights and gates, or upgrading of existing ones, along with medians and other facilities designed to deter motorists from driving around activated crossing protection. You also need an electronic system that alerts an approaching train crew if the automated warning devices are malfunctioning. If they are, the horn must be sounded. All of that, along with future maintenance, is on the municipality's dime. I worked on agreements for QZs in two tony areas on northern New Jersey. The municipalities had to cough up hundreds of thousands of dollars for the crossing upgrades and maintenance alone. (Railroad communications and signal work is
very expensive and can rarely (if ever) be contracted out.) And that was more than a decade ago.
Anyone who has toured and stayed at Whitefish Lake State Park in Montana relatively recently has seen a QZ at the crossing of the road that leads to the park entrance. Whitefish has become far more tony than it was when I first rode through in 1999, and there is some relatively new residential construction near that crossing. Not surprised the town wanted a QZ and could afford to establish one.