What ever happend to the good ol’ days of useing the proper way of blowing this type of Train horn:----------,----------,o,--------------------. Allan.
Like just about everything else these days, many engineers (seem to) take the easy way out and blow whatever they feel like…as long as they blow for crossings.
I see. So much for the older days. Allan.
I once heard an engineer blow “Shave and a Haircut” while coming to a crossing. I wasn’t at there, but I could hear it from across the woods.
On the caltrain line at night when the UP cement train is working on some nights it comes out like: ---------------,o,o,o,----------,o
and that really messes me up when i hear it
also sometimes at day when some commuters are running it comes out like
---------,o,o,o,o,—
which again makes me think double time
Um, nothing?
The two long short and long is still in any rulebook to be used at crossings.
Any engineer should adhere to that rule cause after a crossing accident the black box is downloaded, not complying will get you in big legal trouble bot for keeping your job and for lawsuits.
Improper whistle signals is an operating failure . Rule compliance includes whistle signals and if an engineer is caught he will likely be given an efficiency failure.
Considering that many newer units have an automatic crossing signal function it should not be a problem, but it is one, I hear non-standard horn signals at crossings near my home frequently. A friend told me that the non-standard signals are often used in frustration when people run the crossing ahead of a train, in motor vehicles, on bicycles (the worst group I’m told) and pedestrians (crossing and playing “chicken”) The level of ignorance about trains outside the employee/railfan communities is a pretty sad statement on the state of the general[V] population these days!
Where I railfan at Eola Terminal Yard on BNSF in Aurora, IL a man frequently brings his young blind son to listen to the trains at the crossing there and he records the sounds so horn “style” means a lot to him. Well, one Amtrak enteineer on the SW Chief sounds “shave and a haircut, two bits” for him when he sees him and you can just see the glow on the face of that kid when this happens…just goes to show there is still some little bit of kindness in this world with some people.
No kidding.
But the oddest horn blow for a crossing would have to be (and I was in the loco at the time) -------------------------,------------------------------,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,-------------------,0,0,0,0
Most guys will blow the rule crossing signal. Unless someone is hanging around looking dangerous. In which case… he or she will blow pretty dang near anything that they hope will get some attention.
Well with the BNSF and the FRA breathing down our necks on blowing the whistle, these engineers on the BNSF better watch them selves. Since early this past summer the FRA made the rule that if traveling under 45 mph you can only blow the whistle for no more than 20 seconds, and then after a car, train accident near Hastings NE. the railroad came back and said no less than 15 sec. and no more than 20 sec. when traveling under 45mph, at 45 mph and over start at whistle board. And if you don’t blow the correct 2 longs a short and a long you will get a operations test failure, and if they catch you blowing under 15 sec. they will pull the engineer and conductor from service and take alternative handling. The railroad and FRA is getting really strict on the issue.
GOOD! It’s about D@MN time.
Allan.
The two long, one short, one long is the standard for approaching grade crossings. In fact it is required to blow five seconds for each long, three seconds for each short. As silly as this seems this is what the weed weesels test crews for. If an improper horn signal is not given, it is the entire crew that can get a failure, not just the hoghead.
I most generally hear the proper signal, but have occasionally gotten an extra toot or two from a friendly engineer after he’s past the crossing.
Around here they mostly blow the right warning, but take shortcuts. I do remember from a brief cab ride that the last horn blast is supposed to last until the train is actually on the crossing.
On Fri night, was coming back into town on our little local approaching one of the main drags, hoghead blows the correct horn signal, a couple of cars of teenage punks then begin blowing their horns at us acting like jerks, hoghead flips them the bird and after getting the pwr and about 2 cars over the xing, stops to **** the drivers off. We sat there for a min then begin slowly pulling. By time rear cleared, a mainliner came by and had the xing blocked for about an additional 3 min. That served the little teenage punks right if you ask me.
Here in Hillsbourough County, FL I live near the CSX mainline. IMHO, engineers blow the correct crossing grade sequence 99% of the time. Sometimes they will give a friendly “toot” to railfans.
A long while back I was very surprised when I saw the Amtrak Silver Star whipping by as usual at close to 70 mph. This engineer only blew toots for the two grade crossings that were less than 1/4 mile apart! Perhaps this engineer was tired or had a headache as K5 horns are quite loud, but I now wonder if a CSX official would have written him up for that.
The Ellis & Eastern gravel train just pulled through town, 4 blocks down the street. You can hear it coming a long ways away, thanks to grade crossings evenly spaced about a block apart. Today, just by the sound of the horn, I could tell that it wasn’t the usual engineer tooting the horn.[^]