Way not FF'ing!

[Betty Hiner]

Burlington Northern is in the process of making our rail crossings a no horn zone. Guess it makes it safer for the knuckleheads who try to beat the trains to the crossing, by extending a high curb and brick divider, away from the tracks so you can't drive around the signal arms when they start down.
There's something seriously calming about listening to the trains pass while you're laying there awake in the middle of the night. It's surprising how many different sounding horns there are ... Gawd, I'm gunna miss them!

[Marco]

Betty,
Do I ever hear ya? In my youth, as a 6yr old ( immigrant child) in Escanaba MI.,we lived about a mile from some tracks and a crossing complete with that swinging bell/light signal. Somehow, although it woke me from my slumber, it was soothing to hear that bell and a certain sequence of train whistle/horn. It has stayed with me since . I LOVE the smell of a train station and creasote. Call me whatever but dats da trut.

Mark

[Lotech]

I find lots of nostalgia in those whistles and horns. I've come to find out that each train, depending on direction and engineer, has it's own signal. Just about 3/4 of a mile north of here, when there is a train crossing several arterials you can almost tell what time it is by the train whistle. Two long blasts, one short, and another long, means it's about 3:00 A.M. and the train is westbound approaching a north/south road. I remember when I was a child back in the early 50's. I would be asleep in my grandmothers back bedroom in a small and sleepy farmtown in eastern Washington. The windows were single pane and frosted up just by entering the bedroom in the winter. I would be laying in bed, between two flannel sheets, under heavy quilts and I'd hear the train whistle. I'd jump out of bed, wipe the frost off the inside of the window, and watch the train go by about 40 yards south of the house. Very pleasant memories. If the train was going by in the day time, we kids would run to see it and wave at the engineer. He would always wave back. I those days, there was also a caboose, and the breakman would always wave too. I hope those days are not gone for others, but they are gone for me.
Gosh, I feel like a character in a Norman Rockwell painting now.

[Jack Hise]

Tullahoma is a railroad town. You can hear the engineers talking to each other in the early morning hours. I have yet to assign signals to individule engineers but you can detect a subtile difference in them ( I live far enough away that you must be awake). When fishing on the Duck River you are always reminded that there is a railway near by. After a time you can also learn the short cuts to avoid the trains!

[gmac209]

Just curious - why would they do that? Somebody complaining about the noise. I always thought it was safety first.

[nighthawk]

I hear ya ma,
I grew up in a rail road town too. The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad supplied the mills in Pittsburgh with the raw materials to make steel. Coal and lime stone from Pa and Ohio. Taconite from the great lakes states like Wisconsin. My grandfather retired from the B&LE. Lots of my friends family members worked and retired there too. As a child I used to lay in bed and drift off to sleep to the sound for the trains pulling the McCoytown Grade coming out of the tipple along with the sound of the horns at the Browntown Crossing.

http://users.zoominternet.net/~jamieo/B&LE_Page.html

http://members3.boardhost.com/Bessemer/

I moved away. Where I live now I hear a train across the river once in a while. The B&LE is just a ghost of it's former self now. It is owned by CNR (Canadian National Railroad) these days. Instead of a train every 15 minutes it is now just a train or two a day. The B&LE is a common link between myself and Steve Molcsan. Kinda cool that it brings two guys from different generations and across a continent together. Fall in Pa and wood smoke along the rails Steve!

[kbproctor]

It was my understanding from years ago when I got my Railroading Merit Badge, that the common signal of two longs, a short, and a long originated with a railroad here who's name started with the letter "Q". The signal is the letter Q in Morse Code. Another answer given is that it originated in Britain. The story is that when a train carrying the Queen approached or left a town, they would sound the letter "Q" to signify the train carried the Queen.

I'm going with the first one.

[oldfrat]

I'm amazed by this thread. I occasionally spend the night in Hot Sulfur Springs on a fishing trip. The trains whistle and bugle their way through town often during the night. It just annoys the heck out of me and I find myself wondering why the locals put up with it.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

[farleycat]

My father worked for the B & O (Baltimore and Ohio) railroad. I have many fond memories of trains in my youth. Back in those days each conductor was assigned their own caboose. He made his into his home away from home. It was neat to sit in it while Dad was getting his gear together. When Mom knew Dad was coming into the freight yards she would take us to the tracks and as the train slowly rolled past my Dad would throw us a roll of pennies...what a treat that was! One time when the train was passing by Dad tried to get me to jump on (it was a very slow passing) but I was too afraid.....always regretted that...even to this day. One of the best trips I ever had was returning to Mtn View, Calif after I left the Army in 1965. Since Dad worked for the railroad I traveled to Chicago FREE and then from Chicago to San Francisco at half price. I chose the southern route. Had my own sleeper room and spent the days in the "skyline" car for the views. The food in those days was very very good. Somewhere around southern Calif I remember coming up on hundreds of Navy ships that were mothballed and it was such an strange sight.
Wow.....great memories.....
Bernie

[Bamboozle]

Trains and trolleys are my second love after fishing. My favorite local stream has a branch line running along side of it. The best day fishing is always a day when I hear the far off rumble of the engine, the squeeling of the wheels and finally see the train through the trees. I always stop to watch and listen.