Posted on 01/17/2008 6:14:11 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
But, they’re victims; can’t you understand that?
$900,000 for 10 crossings sounds like a relative bargain. The newspaper here in Culpeper, Virginia reported last week that the Town is about to spend more than $500,000 to upgrade (I think) only 3 railroad crossings; for the same purpose, of course. So the train whistles won’t have to blow in order to save stupid people from those sneaky trains.
The horn (or previously whistle) signal for approaching a crossing hasn’t changed in the last hundred year or so: two longs, short, long.
Culling of the herd. I really don’t feel sorry for morons getting hit by trains.
You are reading my mind again. Why people buy houses near these things and then complain is ludicrous.
We have a small airport nearby. It has been there for at least 30 years. It amazes me the amount of people that have bought homes that abut it and now show up at meetings trying to close it down, because they feel its not safe? HUH? No one forced these idiots to buy those homes in that location. Its another symptom of our “but I am entitled” society.
And I stopped noticing them pretty quickly too.
Fortunately, they were electric. Occasionally, a diesel electric would rumble by, and that would draw attention.
One woman I knew lived about as close as you could to the tracks, as in, her backyard abutted them, and during a RR strike, she said she and her husband would wake up in middle of the night because the trains weren't going by.
“Its another symptom of our but I am entitled society.”
What are you talking about? If local residents want to approach their LOCAL governments to make changes for the benefits for the residents, how is that considered “entitlement”? Conservatives believe that whenever govt power is necessary, it’s best kept as local as possible. Getting local officials to make changes is MUCH preferable than over-arching Federal legislation. Unless you’re a liberal, of course.
Capital Metro in Austin just got the first shipment of the new Metro rail cars. They were testing the trains at night and bigger than ****, people started complaining about the horns.
No mention that FREIGHT trains have been using that same track for years, including at night. Most of those are hauling road base, and have three to four engines. I guess the locals there were used to those blowing their horns at night.
Well, this is all just a liberal conspiracy against Country-Western music; do you know how many great Country-Western songs would never have been written if it weren’t for the lonely train whistle sound? ;-)
Relax folks...we’re just preparing the way for the moose limb call to prayers soon to be broadcast in the silence...5 times per day.
Oh, the humanity.
When I was running my attitude was, “I’m up, everyone is up.” Not really but had to blow the crossings or get nailed by management or the FRA.
So, no, not everyone loves the sound of a train in the distance.
“.and when someone gets killed because the train was forbidden to blow its horn, then what?”
A friend of mine lives in a small, mainline railroad town. She says “Everyone who grew up here knows someone that has been killed by a train.”
Then the emergency vehicles called the scene won't be allowed to use sirens either..
I don’t know what to say. I grew up one block from the tracks and LOVED!!!! to hear the sound of the train going by at night. Yes, while I was sleeping. In La Crosse there are numerous houses right next to the tracks. I’ve never heard of any petition to silence the trains as they go by.
I used to live about 2 blocks from the train tracks. Like you after the first week I didn’t hear them. Mine was mostly commuter rail but every night around midnight we’d have a huge freight come through.
My parents live out in the country where it is extremely quiet. I’d go to visit for Christmas for a week or 2 and it would take me 3 or 4 nights to adjust to the ‘spooky’ silence.
What is there about leftists and this train horn stuff. I live in Flagstaff, AZ and the granola and latte crew here have been up in arms and ready to spend millions in everyone’s tax dollars over the same issue. The trains have gone through Flagstaff, sounding their horns, since the 1880’s. That’s many, many years before the current crop of “crystal people” arrived from California. Trains moving mean prosperity; when they diminish or stop, a lot of trust funds underwriting some fashionably “green” lifestyles are going to dry up too.
Regarding the train horns, I tell these aging hippies; “If they’re too loud, you’re too old.”
The engineman is always permitted - indeed, required - to use the horn in case of an emergency, or to warn someone on or near the tracks. This supersedes the "quiet zone" rules.
Not to do so could result in rules violation charges against the engineman if an accident or fatality did happen afterwards. Modern locomotives have event recorders that record such things as the sounding of the horn and the ringing of the bell, headlight position, and numerous other things.
In fact, on trains such as Amtrak's Acela Express, the entire operation of the train is recorded and is retained as a permanent record. They could go back 5 years to a particular trip, and replay it back in front of you.
In the future, things are going to go even further. Today, the information is "recorded" onto an "event recorder", which can be played back later. But I believe Amtrak has invited bids on some sort of "real-time monitoring" system using "data radios", by which the operation of a locomotive can be reviewed continuously and in "real-time" as it is being operated, from a control center miles away. "Big brother is watching you", in real life! It won't be in operation for a few years, yet - but it's coming.
- John
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