Is Flagstaff, Arizona a major US railroad action hotspot? I ask because on Friday 13th April, BBC Radio 4 in Britain is broadcasting a 15 minute documentary about Flagstaff and the attempts by the NIMBY’s to silence the horns.
For those able to receive BBC Radio 4 this programme is on at 3:45 pm (Briitish Summer Time) on Friday 13th April, but only on FM. Hopefully it will be downloadable from the bbc website at www.bbc.co.uk/Radio4
It is on BNSF’s transcontinental line.
Yes, Flagstaff is on the ex AT&SF transcon. There can be 65-80 trains a day through there, with traffic heavier thur-sat and lighter mon-tue.
Yes, Flagstaff has a lot of trains…and mountains making it a wonderful place to watch trains. It is also a college town (Northern Arizona) and is a regional economic center. Quite a few astronomical observatories in the area.
One of my favorite places to visit.
ed
My buddy who downloads these programmes for me when I ask him (I aint got broadband; he has!)
tells me if you go the Radio 4 web page:-
and then click on ‘Listen Again’ button, it should direct you to a page where you can down load it. Failing that, it should be gettable at
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/1545_fri.ra
Fire up RealPlayer, File > Open URL and paste it in
Finally, some blurb on the BBC site:-
“Environmental scientist Diane Hope celebrates the quintessentially American sound of the train horn. American railways were built during the days of the Wild West when cattle were free to roam the wide open plains and the horn was used to warn people and animals of an approaching train. Nowadays, however, towns and suburbs have spread along the tracks and people who live close to crossings can hear the horns blasting away day and night. New legislation is being introduced which will limit the frequency and volume of train horn blasts.”
Having lived in Flagstaff for 3 years, I can attest that the railroad is a huge part of the city’s makeup. It’s a town of roughly 60,000 people with a large chunk of that being students for NAU. There are quite a few car/train ‘mishaps’ as it is up there - take away the horns and with the volume of trains that pass through, that number will climb sharply.
As an aside, Flagstaff is home of the Lowell Observatory, famous for the discovery of Pluto.
I got 23 years on you Silicon [:P] been living there for 26 years.
Flag is one of the biggest hubs for trains for the BNSF. One of the busiest. I used to count at least 102 trains on a good day, since me and my mom used to live by the tracks. Great place to watch trains, and has the scenery to back it up.
It’s more of a small town, in the mountains, and an hour’s drive south of the Grand Canyon.
We haven’t been there for a decade or more, but for a while we would stay at the Kings House motel on Route 66 (Santa Fe Avenue) which is right across the street from the mainline and about a hundred yards from a major grade crossing. Not the place to stay if you didn’t like a parade of air horns, but a great view of the action from about half of the second floor rooms.
The Southwest Chief westbound would trail through at about 11, and gobs of container trains and some manifests would go by, putting on a great show. A great place to test spousal tolerance, I suppose. I live today so I guess the test results were OK. It was interesting year to year, though, as a gauge of how well the economy was doing, since we hit there about the same time (Christmas break) and some years the traffic was noticeably down.
Also, some of the visits were during the time when the US was giving the Panama Canal to Panama and one could surmise from all of the stack trains going by why the canal was less vital to US interests.
Haven’t been to Flagstaff in a long time, but it’s a really pretty city in a spectacular setting–northern Arizona, right at the foot of the San Francisco Mountains. Right on the BNSF Transcon (when I was there, it was Santa Fe), and even back then there were tons of trains going through 24-7.
It kind of reminded me of Truckee, CA, on the SP (now UP) Donner Pass route, with those beautiful mountains in the background and most of the town facing the tracks. Only Flagstaff had a LOT more trains (and probably even more, now).
Tom
Sounds like a good place to visit. If I ever get across the pond must put it on my list. I thought I’d heard of it somewhere else. (In Britain we have a monthly TV show ‘The Sky at Night’ about astronomy and it’s been presented by the same guy, Patrick Moore, since it started in 1957. Moore has received many awards for amount of interest he’s drummed up in astronomy this last half century).
…I might comment that it takes quite a bit of climbing for the railroad to get up to it…If I remember correctly, it’s about 7,000’ elevation.
Many years ago while doing work around Kingman we’d get over there occasionally.
Humphrey’s Peak is nearby {12,000’ elev. plus}, and I remember seeing that landmark in the distance, landing at Vegas.
Any locality is welcome to pay from its own pocket for a “quiet zone” that consists of full quad gates and traffic-control devices such as medians and curbs to prevent cars from going around the gates – this is what the FRA requires for trains to not blow horns. However, the federal government and most state governments will not help pay for quiet zones as they are a lifestyle issue, not a safety issue. Usually what happens is the city that wants a quiet zone learns that it costs $250,000-$450,000 for a quad-gate crossing, realizes that it needs 8 or 10 in a row of these, and the voters then decide they have better ideas how they want to spend (or not spend) $3-5 million, like maybe on a new elementary school or a tax cut.
Local and state legislation that would force railways to pay for quiet zones has to date run afoul of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.
S. Hadid
We were through Flagstaff on our trip, but didn’t stop (our day took us from Gallup to Kingman, both of which are also great places to watch trains on the former ATSF).
Did you stop at the mini mill by Kingman (McConnico)? I know Nucor bought it but I cannot find anything about it on Nucor’s website anymore. I heard they reopened everything but the melt shop. I wonder if it is closed again. I searched their news releases for Kingman but found nothing.
If the town came up with the funds to install the required crossing devices, I assume the actual installation would be done by the BNSF. I also assume electric costs and maintenance would also be borne by the BNSF.
In that situatioin, does the BNSF bill the ongoing costs back to the municipality?
Installation is generally done by the railroad’s signal construction forces or by a contractor to the railroad; it depends what is permissable under the railroad’s agreement with the brotherhood and workload.
Electric costs are nominal and generally born by the railroad.
Maintenance costs are generally born by the railroad but there may be a cost-sharing arrangement with the municipality.
S. Hadid
…Carl…As we did our work years ago of testing in the area {Kingman}, we stayed at the Best Western as you go up the rise of old 66 leaving downtown Kingman {east}, and then, the restaurant complex of the La Pasata there {same place}, was brand new…The Sante Fe passed right behind that area. {Back then that hotel complex was a Ramada}. Used to provide the caretaker of the grounds with a bit of refreshment to turn up the pool heater a bit…Evaporation would make the water pretty cool, even in Summertime.
Just a bit farther east and if one looked at night…{out towards the airport}, one could follow the block signals out through the desert valley for about 20 miles as an eastbound would break through each block and see the lights change.
This was when rt. 66 was the main rt. east west through there…Just some of the Interstate there was in place at that time.
I stay in Flagstaff every year for a few days as part of my annual holidays. Flagstaff is a wonderful, friendly town and the surrounding scenery is stunning. I am a scottish based train driver, and Flagstaff is indeed a great place to watch trains as the trains come roaring right through the middle of the town with “all horns a blazin” it is a pretty awesome sight. I love the friendlieness of the place and the people are so friendly and there is loads to do. If you get the chance Flagstaff is a “must” and it is on Route 66 (a wonderful drive)…oh dont get me started I could go on all day about Flagstaff and route 66.
The contract with the electric utility ran out, and Nucor couldn’t reach a reasonable new contract with the power company, so the mill is closed, and probably will be dismantled.
The last time I was in Flagstaff was about 7:15 pm on a late Aug. evening. I drove up toward Lowell Observ. and pulled off the look back over downtown. A full moon was just coming up over a distant mountain. It was all quite a sight as the trains roared into and out of town.