The queit zone in DeKalb, IL has been in discussion for a while, so I was a little suprised when I opened the Daily Chronicle and found that the last of the regulatory hurdels have been cleared to have wayside horns installed. Looks like DeKalb will be a quite zone by the end of 2007.
And if the Dekalb locals screw-up and impale themselves on the front of passing trains anyhow, the law says you go can back to blowing for the crossings in the stupid zones (all that $$$ spent on the improvements will look like the waste that it really is)[(-D][(-D][(-D]
You are right. DeKalb is a college town and… need I say more?
I dunno about understanding people anymore. Cars still run the gates in all of the “quiet zone” towns between Geneva and Downtown, and people get killed.
One more thing. You buy a house near a RR crossing, then complain that you don’t like the noise of the train horns? Sheeesh!
I know. But unfortunately we’re becoming a suburb. A certain sub-group of suburban people seem to want to do nothing but complain. Once they get they’re way with something they’ll go on to the next thing to complain about, probably those darn smelly farms that they’re houses were a year ago.[}:)][xx(]
I’d love to buy a house near the tracks. Either over near the coal tower or next to the Troy Grove Branch.
Those same type of “suburbanites” moving into former open land were pissed about the “noise and filth” coming from the locomotives of the bucholic Kettle Moraine RR, and that’s why it closed down. Even though it was there for years and years before the developers came in.
DeKalb already is a Chicago suburb. [:D] I was just there the other day (Monday) taking low-sun (“honey light”) evening photos of the coaling tower. Next thing, someone will want THAT removed.
I was entering Earlville a week ago eastbound on Route 34 and finally saw something I thought I’d NEVER see – a UP silica sand train heading down toward Troy Grove with empties, headed up by a couple of beaters – GP-15 Y704 and GP38-2 733. They got across Rt. 34 and the lead engine shut down – he told the dispatcher he had both low oil and low water lights. Fortunately, I had my camera bag on the front seat.
DeKalb was a quiet zone of sorts even when I attended NIU (Class of 74). Only rarely do I recall a horn being sounded where the C&NW crossed Lincoln Hwy and 4th St., and this was in the middle of downtown DeKalb.
HAve to agree, i rarely heard a horn in Dekalb when i went to NIU. heck the only time i think i heard a horn was outside the city itself. the 4th st crossing needs a serious facelift on how it operates. it’s a pretty dangerous crossing, luckily no accidents that i can thing of, either pedestrian (it run through a small park) or auto.
Cars still get nailed even with horns blaring, so it seems out of place to prejudge and blame any future incidents on the quite zones.
If flashing lights, crossing bells, and dropping gates cannot deter a collision, then there seems to be little that the necessarily louder moving horn can accomplish except maybe assure the victim was deaf before being turned into lasagna.
Here is an interesting study made in Ames Iowa, that has some interesting input from locomotive engineers who participated in the study.
If you read the Ames study closely it is on a double track but designed to blow only for one train at a time. The engineer on the second train has to blow his horn manually as the lights and gates work but not the automated horn. A design that will eventually kill. {2c] As always ENJOY
I wonder if part of the problem is that volume of these new “push-button” horns cannot be altered: it’s all or nothing.
In the ‘good-old’ days, we could pull the lever as much or little as needed (we used to call it “feathering”. One could almost play a song with the whistle, as most of the chimes seemed to activate individually depending on how much air was being forced through them. A slight pull of the whistle would activate one chime, a slightly harder pull would activate a second chime, and so on.
At 3am it is usually not necessary to wake the dead (only the soon-to-be-dead if they do not stop for the train). An engineer could used to be able to use the horn to get the attention of the brakeman on the ground without destroying his hearing. But not anymore.
Thankfully, the trains that pass my house are always equipped with older power, and most of the engineers on these regular jobs are very gentle with the horn (I can always tell when an extra-board engineer is on the job).
I have always wondered who the “genius” was who thought to replace the whistle handle with a stupid button. Thankfully I never worked on a locomotive with a horn button, or the ‘desk-top’ controls.
Progress is always change, but change is not always progress.
I don’t know how much of a suburb DeKalb has become, but if you have ever read any of Kurt Vonnegut’s works you would know that pretty soon the entire state of Iowa will soon become a suburb of Chicago!![(-D][(-D][(-D]
The follow up to this article is that the owner never did find a receptive town where he could relocate this charming rail line. Too bad. Last I heard, all of the equipment had been sold to others.