Not sure if I like this new warning system with the train horn perm at the RR crossing, it makes a lot more noise than if the engineer just blew the horn on approach.
What the heck? Whaaattt? As Gump says " stupid is as stupid does"
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I agree Chuck, way too funny. Welcome to La-La Land.
Bob
Video is from 2011 - I presume no changes have been made in the ensuing 7 years?
More directed noise, I guess.
If you’re going to go through all the trouble to install those, just do what it takes to make it a quiet zone, IMO.
According to the comments in the newspaper?, the situation has been remedied.
I do take issue with the “two shorts” when the train leaves the station. In my experience (onother roads), they have been shorts, blown before any movement.
More common than you would think and Zugster is correct on the directed noise issue. Regardless, the morons still ignore the warnings.
I really have little sympathy regarding the noise complaints. The people whining ought to pay for the QZ, especially the inevitable accident costs in the stupid zone.
A friend says the first thing that should move is the bell. In my experience, the two shorts usually do come just before the train moves (as called for in the rules), but I’ve got no real quibble with them occuring just as the train starts to move.
If that horn is timed to the crossings, than that’s how it is. However, it appears that it is located at the crossing by the station, not by the other crossings.
In all seriousness, if a crossing has quad gates or the median barriers, do train horns really matter? If someone is wanting to run a crossing with all that stuff in place, I doubt a few honks will do crap. I sometimes wonder if all the blowing we do causes the horns to become simple background noise anymore.
Disclaimer: Follow all rules and regulations pertaining to proper horn blowing.
If my E-bell moves, something is wrong. But yeah, unless doing switching with momentary starts and stops, you ring the bell. Also a bone of contention with me and newer EMDs* that have the bell switch up high. The nice thing with it being down low (where it should be!) is that it’s next to the indep. handle. Easy to ring it as your hand moves to release that handle.
*-headlight swithces, too. I swear whomever at EMD/Progress/Cat/whoever this week designed their latest control stand never ran an engine, and never asked anyone that did/does.
Thank you, Horatio.
RDCs live!
I didn’t see the horns until about 4:17 of the 5:19 video - on a mast above the signal bungalow to the right of the photo, with pretty small ‘bells’.
RDC horn sounds better anyway.
- PDN.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your rulebooks.
I don’t understand the point of silencing the actual train horn and then installing these.
Just make it a quiet zone. You don’t even need quad gates. We have quiet zones here in Canada where the protection does not have a gate. The track speed is 25 mph, but it’s still a quiet zone.
Canada and the US are separted by the NTSB, FRA and their rules and recommendations.
By putting the sound device at the crossing, the sound is loud AT the crossing, where it is needed, the whole time, instead of increasing in volume as the train gets closer. AND you are not disturbing people a 1/4 mile away from the crossing, trying to alert the traffic at the crossing, by a horn loud enough to be heard at the location it is needed.
As Zug mentioned, the sound is also directed towards the approaching roads. This is supposed to lessen the sound for those further away from the crossing.
Ames, IA did go from the Automated Horn System to a full (un)blown Quiet Zone. In Ames, the city was responsible for maintenance of the system. If the horns didn’t sound, crews would contact the dispatcher who then would contact the city. Probably incentive to go fully quiet.
Jeff
Trinity Railway Express has a small fleet of RDC’s they keep for backup that they bought from VIA Rail Canada a long while ago (I believe they have 6 of them in total). They keep them in excellent condition and they are always freshly washed but currently only used as backups and special scenarios.
In this case they lent them out to the Denton A-Train operators because not all their Stadler DMU’s were delivered by the time of start-up.
They also use them in the past for special event shuttles (Union Station to American Airlines Center shuttles for special events), State Fair shuttles to the remote parking lots, new rail line inspection, etc.
[quote user=“CMStPnP”]
Paul_D_North_Jr
RDCs live!
Trinity Railway Express has a small fleet of RDC’s they keep for backup that they bought from VIA Rail Canada a long while ago (I believe they have 6 of them in total). They keep them in excellent condition and they are always freshly washed but currently only used as backups and special scenarios.
In this case they lent them out to the Denton A-Train operators because not all their Stadler DMU’s were delivered by the time of start-up.
They also use them in the past for special event shuttles (Union Station to American Airlines Center shuttles for special events), State Fair shuttles to the remote parking lots, new rail li