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Train horns latest fad, irritant on Florida streets
Knight Rider Newspapers ^ | 2/28/05 | CASEY WOODS

Posted on 02/27/2005 10:07:01 PM PST by freedom44

MIAMI - (KRT) - On a February afternoon, five high school students lounged patiently on a bus-stop bench in Westchester, Fla.

Lino Alvarado Jr. slowed his truck to a crawl, smiled, and unleashed more than 150 decibels of sound from a dozen train horns attached to his truck's undercarriage.

"Did you see those kids flinch?" Alvarado, 20, said as he breezed through a stop sign. "But old people are even better."

The students were blasted by one of the area's hottest vehicle customization trends.

A good set of train horns cost about $1,000 and packs an audio punch that can reach hundreds of feet - to the delight of people who buy them, and to the dismay of residents, who are complaining to police.

"It's outrageous and inconsiderate that people blow these horns, and the state should ban these things," said Morris Sunshine, who lives in South Beach, Fla. "This is merely a pitiful search for instant celebrity."

Police departments in some cities are stepping up efforts to track down and ticket those blowing the horns. In Miami Beach, Fla., police have even arrested one man for blasting his, and intend to arrest more.

Alvarado has received dozens of tickets, spending hundreds of dollars to pay them, but he believes it's worth it.

"It's competition on the street, like when a guy in a truck passes by, he honks his horn, and I honk mine back," he said. "The next time I see him, he doesn't honk his, because he knows mine are bigger and louder."

At close range, the blowing horns are a full-body experience. The blast of air feels like a thin sheet of metal slapping the skin. Ears begin to ring. Even the prepared recoil at the force of sound.

Horn owners gloat.

"Those things are so loud, and they can really get someone's attention," said Pompano Beach, Fla., resident Robbie Buckley, 47, who has a set of horns on his truck. "I got them because I'm a kid that never grew up."

Most local customization enthusiasts point to Gabby Szuster, owner of Gabby's Auto Werks in Miami, as the local godfather of the trend. A decade ago, Szuster saw a tractor-trailer truck with a set of train horns and bought them. He found a way to put them under his truck hood, then ran hoses through a hole cut in his floorboard to a manual lever in the truck cab.

"It was the first stage of the invention," Szuster said. "In the second stage, we ended up getting an electronic valve, and then we went from there."

"We figured out ways to make the horns more user-friendly," said Frank Carralero, co-owner of Red's Auto and Truck Customization Shop in Miami.

Red's installs two horn setups. A five-horn set of genuine train horns from the Nathan Manufacturing Co., maker of horn sets for locomotives since at least 1940, costs $2,500. A chromed three-horn set made in Asia, about half as loud as Nathan's, costs $950.

As the popularity of air horns has boomed, companies have begun to make cheaper air-horn kits, some with plastic trumpets and compact compressors.

Serious aficionados scorn them. "Those things are junk," Carralero said.

Red's has installed the horns in everything from a Honda Civic to monstrous show trucks.

"Now, in nine out of 10 trucks we do, we put in at least two sets of train horns," said Steven Menendez, 27, who works at Red's.

Szuster once installed three of the five-horn sets - 15 trumpets - in one truck.

Air-horn owners tell favorite stories about reactions to the powerful sound. There was the time Carralero blew the horn as he drove past a crowded Miami club: A dozen people ducked, then dropped to the pavement in fear.

Or the time Menendez blew his horns at the railroad crossing next to the shop: "All these cars slammed on their brakes because they thought a train was coming. Their wheels were locking up and everything."

Not everyone with the horns blasts them in city streets.

Consider William Martin, 44, who has spent $60,000 customizing his $40,000 F-350 truck, which has tractor-trailer tires, an 18-inch hydraulic lift, Lamborghini-style wing doors, and a plexiglass steering wheel with three-dimensional flames that light up at night.

"If you're going to have a big truck, you have to have big horns to go with it," Martin said. "But it's just not nice to go out there and blow the horns all the time and upset a bunch of folks."

The horns are a new weapon in the noise war in places such as Coconut Grove, Fla., and Miami Beach, where motorcycles and car stereos already draw incessant complaints.

"These horns are so much louder than the things we originally complained about, and when you hear them, you sit straight up in bed because it's so unbelievably loud," said Izzy Buholzer, who lives near Grand Avenue, where many young people cruise on weekends. "Sometimes it's like a regular concert out there, with three of these guys blowing at each other."

Buholzer said the noise is making him consider selling his property. "I just can't sleep on weekends," he said.

It's not illegal to have the horns, but it is illegal to blow them, because it violates both the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County noise ordinances.

Police in Coconut Grove and Miami Beach have taken steps to crack down on noise sources, including train horns.

Since November, Miami police have been sending out special officer details in Coconut Grove on weekend nights to enforce the noise ordinance.

Miami Beach police have made catching the horn-blowers a priority, said Sgt. David De la Espriella.

He works in the South Pointe area, where a mix of nightclubs and condos led to the city's most pitched battles over noise.

Realizing that a $70 ticket may not faze someone who spent $2,500 on horns, De la Espriella said, police are taking more extreme measures.

"If one of my officers sees you, and you blow that horn, you will be arrested," he said.

Beach police have also begun to stop vehicles that have the horns, and to warn their drivers of the consequences if they blow them.

Alvarado was one of them, and the risk of arrest keeps him from blowing his horns in South Beach anymore. But he resents the possibility that doing so could land him in jail.

"They should be arresting delinquents, people who are doing something really illegal, like selling drugs," Alvarado said. "I'm just a guy having fun with train horns."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 02/27/2005 10:07:01 PM PST by freedom44
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To: freedom44

"It's competition on the street, like when a guy in a truck passes by, he honks his horn, and I honk mine back," he said. "The next time I see him, he doesn't honk his, because he knows mine are bigger and louder."


There just are not any words to describe how idiotic and pointless this is.


2 posted on 02/27/2005 10:09:40 PM PST by Wolfhound777 (It's not our job to forgive them. Only God can do that. Our job is to arrange the meeting)
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To: Wolfhound777

When I was a kid, we would simply turn up the bass whenever we came up next to an old codger in a Cadillac. We used to blast boat horns at parties too.


3 posted on 02/27/2005 10:10:52 PM PST by Clemenza (Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms: The Other Holy Trinity)
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To: freedom44

Book 'em, Dano.


4 posted on 02/27/2005 10:11:13 PM PST by John Valentine
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To: Wolfhound777

Leave the boys with their toys. Someday, lord willing, they will grow up...


5 posted on 02/27/2005 10:11:49 PM PST by Clemenza (Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms: The Other Holy Trinity)
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To: Wolfhound777
There just are not any words to describe how idiotic and pointless this is.

Absolutely. I want some.
6 posted on 02/27/2005 10:12:04 PM PST by July 4th (A vacant lot cancelled out my vote for Bush.)
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To: freedom44

Idiots on Parade, part 12973165854526523569874-333


7 posted on 02/27/2005 10:13:12 PM PST by JoJo Gunn (More than two lawyers in any Country constitutes a terrorist organization. ©)
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To: freedom44

The trial lawyers are gonna love this. Make a ton of $$$$$ too.


8 posted on 02/27/2005 10:13:43 PM PST by Waco
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To: freedom44

When I was in college, I knew guy who could imitate police and fire truck sirens. Quite a set of lungs that guy had. Schoolchildren would run to the fence to see the excitement, cars would pull over, and policemen would pull him over and fine-tooth comb his car to find the siren.


9 posted on 02/27/2005 10:13:44 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (The people previously responsible for this tagline have been sacked.)
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To: John Valentine

Find a good spot, stand these reprobates up in front of their own vehicles and give it to them loud and long - until they cry for mercy or are rendered permanently hard of hearing.

If that happens, make 'em move forward 15 feet and open up on 'em again.


10 posted on 02/27/2005 10:14:00 PM PST by John Valentine
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To: freedom44
When I was a kid, my Dad used to tell me about a guy he knew about that lived in Cincinatti. Had a big Cadillac and had two very large locomotive horns installed under the hood on the left and right sides, above the wheel wells.

Well, the guy got in trouble with the law and was not allowed to blow the horns in the city limits of Cincinatti, or across the river in Covington. The only place he could blow the horns was on the bridge on the state line.

Oh, did I mention this guy was an eccentric with money??

11 posted on 02/27/2005 10:16:05 PM PST by technomage
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To: freedom44

Something that loud could constitute assault since it could permanently damage a person's hearing.


12 posted on 02/27/2005 10:16:38 PM PST by MediaMole
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To: freedom44
locomotive horns on a car is just a nussance.

But a locomotive horn on a turbine powered helieo courier aircraft, now that's something to talk about.

I saw the thing at the Oshkosh flyin this year, and EAA's Pilot magazine had a piece on it (can't find a link). In addition to the huge turbine, it has huge, and I mean HUGE landing gear with 4wd rock crawler tires. Nose gear is from an F101 Vodoo fighter jet. Two nose gear tires, natch. Fuselage belly is about 5 feet off the ground. Ladder to the door. Bigfoot with wings.

Horn is for scaring wildlife off the back country strips.

It also gets the neighbors wound up when they hear the train go over their house several times.

13 posted on 02/27/2005 10:17:26 PM PST by narby (Evolution isn't an Intelligent design, its a Brilliant Design)
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To: freedom44

This is one of the funniest stories I've read in a while. I remember a friend back in high school who had a train horn in his pickup truck, and it was LOUD! Twenty-three years in the Corps didn't make me grow up completely, bacause I wish I had a train horn now...


14 posted on 02/27/2005 10:18:23 PM PST by Always A Marine
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To: freedom44
Consider William Martin, 44, who has spent $60,000 customizing his $40,000 F-350 truck, which has tractor-trailer tires, an 18-inch hydraulic lift, Lamborghini-style wing doors, and a plexiglass steering wheel with three-dimensional flames that light up at night.

You gotta be kidding!

15 posted on 02/27/2005 10:18:27 PM PST by rdl6989
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To: freedom44

These should never be allowed to be sold.

Jeez, must everything be "for sale".


16 posted on 02/27/2005 10:19:24 PM PST by Finalapproach29er (Open borders=National suicide)
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To: Wolfhound777

Democrat voters?


17 posted on 02/27/2005 10:20:13 PM PST by GeronL (Condi will not be mistaken for a cleaning lady)
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To: Clemenza
A college friend of mine back in the early 70's had a 1930's era fire truck. He needed a siren for it, and we found one in a Tulsa antique store. It was a hand crank air raid siren from WWII.

Had a great night driving down the local Tulsa cruise (Peoria street, I think) cranking it in my 1967 Impala.

18 posted on 02/27/2005 10:20:54 PM PST by narby (Evolution isn't an Intelligent design, its a Brilliant Design)
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To: GeronL

No, just kids having fun pissing off the adults.


19 posted on 02/27/2005 10:21:45 PM PST by Clemenza (Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms: The Other Holy Trinity)
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To: narby
It also gets the neighbors wound up when they hear the train go over their house several times.

I bet, ping me if you can find a pic

20 posted on 02/27/2005 10:22:13 PM PST by GeronL (Condi will not be mistaken for a cleaning lady)
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