As some of you know, I live in the small town of Langenburg, Saskatchewan of about 1000 people. You may also have heard me say that on the CP line that goes through the trains are restricted to 10mph. Many people are rightfully upset that the trains go so slow and have been in contact with CP trying to do something about it. Like the others, I hope that they upgrade the tracks and bring the speeds up soon. But this time, they’ve gone WAAAAAY to far and in fact I really can’t say that I’m proud to live in Langenburg! The town council wants the trains to stop blowing their horns! Yes, just stop! They actually had the nerve to contact CP and Transport Canada to ask if this would be possible! How very intelligent it must have made them look! The response was that such a thing would not be possible unless level crossings with gates were installed. We have three crossings in town (the tracks cut the town in half) and with less than 10 trains a day that go as slow as they do putting gates would be a waste of time and money. This story made the front page of our local paper and in it our mayor, intelligent fellow that he is (I’m using sarcasm there), is quoted as saying that “train whistles don’t do anything except wake you up at 3:00 in the morning.” The editor of the newspaper is a railfan and has model trains. I wish he’d write an editorial in saying how fooli***his really is.
The horn is the only wepon an Engineer has against the Brain Dead that are soon to be Real Dead at road crossings.
How powerless can an Engineer feel as 20000 tons moving at 40 MPH is bearing down up the Brain Dead individuals that persist in either trying the ‘beat the train’ (tie and you lose…big time) or stop on or too close to the crossing and are totally oblivious to anything transpireing around them - Like the oncoming train Horn Blaring, Headlight Bright, Ditch Lights Flashing and Bell Ringing. Welcome to the world of the soon to be DEAD!
Well Mitchell,
Heres an idea…
You have a word processor, and I assume a printer?
You have the address for the editor of your local paper, and they have a “letter to the editors” section?
So, write…
You seem to have a very well honed ability to make sense with the written word, so help the editor out, and explain why not blowing the horn, and going real slow are a problem.
It just might be that the people in your town really dont understand why the horn is mostly for their protection, so explain it to them, in words they can understand.
Use your talent, ehh?
Ed[:D]
Well,
What a great way to create a rift between the town and the CPR. CPR was there first! The CPR PUT Langenburg on the map. I agree with you!
BUT, the CPR wishing to be good neigbors want’s to work with Langenburg. Here’ s my prediction of what the outcome will be:
-They’ll do a ‘research study’ of noise pollution, costs $$$$-paid for by the town and maybe a little by Sask. Government
- If they decide to go whistle free (exemption to RULE 14), they will have to put up gates at the crossings, CPR may request the speed to be rasied to 30MPH.
A question, if I may. Do the trains go through town so slow because of a town ordinance (like my neck of the woods) or because of track conditions? If it’s the former, the town has the power to “fix” the slow moving train problem themselves. If it’s the latter, grin and bear it… Look on the bright side, at least they are talking instead of ignoring each other. Any improvement to the situation will require a working dialog between the town and CPR.
…Mitchell: Your plight sounds familiar. This town here of ours…[ about 75,000 pop.], has a 30 mph ordinance of through train traffic and as i’ve commented before, they are trying to quiet the train horns…and the way it looks it might be accomplished this year some time. Most if not all the crossings have lights and gates but one can drive around them…[they do not span the entire width of street]…30 mph seems pretty reasonable but the no horn blowing is just plain stupid in my opinion and I hope a lot of others. [8D]
Sask:
Do not feel like the Lone Ranger up there. There are plenty of towns down south of the border in the lower 48 that can rival your city fathers in creating “stupid zones”. There are towns down here in multiple places that imposed 25-35 MPH speed restrictions through town (District Speed = 60) and then complain about blocked crossings account of slow moving trains(!!?) Write your letter as Ed says and carbon copies to Operation LifeSaver (http://www.operationlifesaver.ca/) in Toronto, your local Transport Canada and CTA offices, and the CP Chief Engineer Mike Roney in Calgary .
Politicians suddenly get cold feet when the public questions their presence of mind.
Bani***he mayor and town council to Manitoba (a short walk to the east, if they’ll even consider taking them in…) and elect some folks with a little gray matter left between the ears…ehh?
Mudchicken
[banghead][banghead][X-)]
PS - These clowns will advocate traffic circles at the crossings next?
The solutions all come down to one thing – money.
If the town decides they want to have the gate crossings installed at their expense, then the railraod would be happy to stop blowing their horns.
Depending on the size of your town it could really make a huge dent, they may not be able to afford it at all.
If you write a letter, you should propose that everyone who is against the sound of the trains blowing their whistles chip in to pay for the gates, or at least the gates that are closest to the most complainers.
At least now you can say the complainers have been thrown a bone.
Even with the gates and flashers some people are still brain dead.Keep the horns.
stay safe
joe
If you don’t want the horns then spend the money to eliminate the grade crossings!!!
I agree with JoeKoh.
Downunder we have had accidents at crossings even WITH lights and boom gates operating! The brain dead are everywhere!
All trains here in Queensland must sound horn at all crossings, lights and boomgates or not.
I ask all that complain about train horn noise:
“Did they move in to the area before the railroad?” I bet they didn’t! It’s the same mentality of those who move into a house close to an irport runway then porceed to complain about aircraft noise. What a joke…
Cheers
Kozzie
Hey Mitchell,
Ed’s right, if you can educate the people as to why the train blows its horn at grade crossings they might see the light (if they don’t get the point the “light” might be the last thing they see). Some of the “Brain Dead” are only “Brain Dormant” and with a little TLC they might wake up and understand how important it is.
Jeff
Down in Madison Wisconsin the city put a ban on railroads (WSOR) from using their horns within the city limits. The railroad complied . They would use their horns only if there was imminent DANGER . Now the car / train colisions have increased , Even with warning lights & gates at the crossings. So the bossman told them to start using your horns regardless of the citys so called ban. Now they want to issue citations to the railroad . Folks… they use them for a REASON,… WHAT NEXT,… The banning of emergency vehicle sirens, PS; We do know what your going through up yonder.
OH WOW, boy can I sympathize with you!
I live in a Small town of Hudson, M&O Subdivison, Little jerk-water town of about 5000 people, love it, take the train to school every morning. almost every morning.
The Train travels through a few Cities, Hudson, St. Lazare, Vaudreuil, before connecting with the main CPR track in Vaudreuil, Subdivision Vaudreuil.
Now the people who live in St.Lazare, are spoiled brats, that would actually, in written word wrote to the gazette and said they would like the RR track done away with all together.
Thats merely a crime in itself.
to the point, the want no whistles too. It’s never going to happen because of the various laws we have in Quebec about Single Track, RR warning devices and whistling.
SO when this person wrote this article, about 15 Hudson people wrote to the editor, telling htme that their letter did a diservice to jsut about every person on the planet. The train was a nesesity and had been around for ages, if it isn’t broken, leave it alone.
The very weird thing though, It’s often the people who complain, who have no heritage, who know didaley Squat about their history who complain about the Trains. And to prove my point even further, the most Grumbling comes from the town of Vaudreuil, where a new development had just finished being built, byt the tracks, right behind it to be percise, and the people have jsut moved in 2 or 4 or 6 months ago. these houses are about a foot and a hlaf by two feet, spaced right together so you can see your neighbors bathroom.
Oh yes, charming
Here in hudson, were all old timers, houses are 60+ years old, and Everyone loves the train, you’ll be beaten up if you pop the line “the train is so annoying because…”
Nobosy wants the Train whistles to stop, matter of fact osmeone wrote to the Editor, from Hudson, saying that he could rememebr when it was a Steam whistle… and how that sounded, it was amazing to kn
Oh, and jsut to back Ed up I use “letter to the Editor” feature probobly about 8 times a year or so.
it gets your message across…
But expect somehting back, cause i always get an evil letter back [:D]
well, what do you expect from politicians? they’re about 100x worse than the standard brain dead…
You might want to visit the Association of American Railroads website and get all the information you can on highway railway crossing incidents and use this information in your letter(s) to the editor and ask whether the Mayor and others asking for no horn blowing want to be responsible for unfavorable changes in the most important statistics in this matter. Enough said! I would hate to be in the Mayor’s shoes if an unfortunate incident occured shortly after horn blowing was stopped! Dave
I do know that Frisco cooperated with a small city who also had an ordinance again the railroad engine blowing their horn. There was a double track through this town. The engine would ring the bell while in town. If there was a train on the second track then the trains would use the horn. I don’t have any info on grade crossing accidents with in this town. I actually think that since Frisco cooperated with them that there were few. Maybe some of the other guys might have more info about this situation.
Mine really is. I have THE WORLD"S SLOWEST POST OFFICE!!! I’m still waiting for the Model Railroader to get shipped to me. It’s a small town of 800 that has a branch line there. Most of the roads in the area are currently being detoured because the main highway that we always use is getting detoured RIGHT AT OUR EXIT!!! Supposedly(sp), this will stay in effect for over a year. Some days I feel like living somewhere else.
You want to stop into the “Hit By Train” thread that’s currently ongoing, as well as "Chilling Stories . . . . . collisions. ". More “color” for your well-reasoned argument.