I’m noting along a BNSF mainline , at a crossing , a new signal or device , maybe been there about 1 year. It is on a tall metal pole and at the top has an X lite up in it ,in a dull yellow color. The X looks kind of down at an angle from track at street. Visible as you drive thru the crossing. There is one on each side of the road the crossing is located at.
What is this ?
Al
Does the “X” blink three times in rapid succession? Does it look like it would be visible to engineers on trains? Is there a boxy-looking funnel on the same pole?
If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions, you’re probably looking at a crossing-mounted horn that makes it unnecessary for the engineer to sound the train’s horn at this crossing.
Carl says: “Railroader Emeritus (practicing railroading for 46 years–and I finally got it right!)”
You finally got it right by getting out?[:)]
Guess you could say that–I’m getting paid to railfan now, and can do it all on my own time!
There is a downside, though–working knowledge has gotten a lot harder to acquire.
I’m gonna go with Carl on that one. It’s probably one of those automated, public-crossing-at-grade horns that relieves the engineer from blowing the locomotive horn at the crossing. The illuminated letter “X” notifies the engineer way in advance that the automated device is working.
The ones I’m familiar with are in downtown Grand Island, Nebr. They’re obnoxiously loud, and the blast of noise that comes out of them approximates what I would expect to hear if someone were to set off an M80 firecracker deep within a bovine’s rectal cavity.
There was an earlier thread on this, called “Railroad Controls Limited.” I went to the corporation’s website and there is a lot of info there, including research studies on effectiveness. The link below takes you to a demonstration of the difference between conventional crossings with loco horns and the stationary, directional technology. But there are many other pages of interest.
http://www.quietzonetech.com/index.php?q=ahs-horn-demonstration
To all that responded ,again Thanks !
Yes it does blink about 3 times in rapid succesion ,don’t recall a funnel looking device on top,next time I see it, I’ll check.
So it is for the engineer so they don’t have to blow the horn,would not you want the enginner to blow the horn rather then depending on another thing to " toot its horn " ,that can fail ?
I know it is a gaget world ,but threy always want to take the human out of the picture. I guess the engineer doesn’t care ,if something happens they are off the hook,the device failed!
Al
The blinking is to show the device is working. If it is not working, then the engineer gets to blow the horn as normal, and call it in so the signal maintainer can come out and fix it.
I don’t know about other locations, but in Ames, Iowa, maintenance and repair of the horn system belongs to the city. When we notify the dispatcher they aren’t working, the city is notified.
If the system isn’t working on a Saturday, chances are it won’t get fixed until Monday.
Jeff
Updated information: I checked with our local government on the wayside horn system and he said the FRA told him that Mundelein (mentioned in the website of the company that makes the system) is in the process of removing their wayside horns because the noise reductions were not that effective for the surrounding neighborhoods. So it turns out to be a system that doesn’t deliver noise reduction.
Hmm, I wonder if they would not satisfied unless there were a complete cessation of noise from the tracks. (I don’t care if you (the railroad) was already here when I moved here; I want you gone!)[?]
Maybe not, but what seems clear is that the promise of a smaller cone of higher decibel sound hasn’t worked out. However, that doesn’t mean that the concept of reduced horn noise, especially at night, in residential areas isn’t a worthwhile goal. The criterion of who was there first is invalid. By that standard, perhaps the nearby Indian (Native American) settlements of 200 years ago should have priority. Progress includes attempts at accommodations between neighbors, not just a stiff-necked invocation of anti-NIMBYism.
I don’t get the stationary horn idea at all. What do they accomplish that a crossing bell does not? Plus why do the horns blow the entire time the crossing is occupied?
I don’t think the horn is supposed to blow the entire time, but I might be wrong. I think the idea was to have a more focused horn sound aimed on the axis perpendicular to the tracks, rather than a locomotive’s louder horn along the track’s axis starting at least a quarter mile (or more?) from the crossing. That would reduce the “footprint” of the loco’s horn sound, disturb fewer people, yet be equal or better at warning motorists. But at least this system seems to be not so good.
I’ve seen videos of these wayside horns (Or “Farting Speakers” as I call them) in action. They sound horrible. I think if you lived right next to a crossing, that thing blasting away would keep you awake just as much as a locomotive’s horn would too.
But I have absolutely no sympathy for NIMBYs. If you don’t like the noise, then you shouldn’t have moved to that house. Period!
The crossing horns are supposed to “blow” only until the crossing is occupied.