TRAIN HORN AT 4:40 am!!!! What was that for???
 

Okay we don't even live close to the railroad tracks near The Villages. I would say we live about two miles away. But, we could easily hear the train horn going off at 4:40 am for at least three or four minutes long.
What is going on?? The people who live even closer to those tracks must be going nuts over this.
Chime in if you heard that too.....

Depends on overcast and which way wind blowing. I live about same from tracks, I only hear train when I am already awake. But I have ace in hole? I’m deaf in one ear. I don’t hear nothing if laying on my good working ear:D

Did you watch My Cousin Vinny last night?! ;)

We hear it way off in the distance and it always reminds me of the old John Wayne type movies where the train is crossing the prairie. Kind of romantic, although I must admit I never thought I would live on the train tracks anywhere.

Maybe not a train...

HornBlasters Train Horn Kits | Loudest Train Horn Kits

Pretty sure of hearing one of these blasting from a truck..

In a previous home we started hearing frequent train horns. About the second time it happened it occurred to me that I lived at the bottom end of an island with no tracks within 10 miles and even those had not been used in decades. One of the neighbors at the end of the road had discovered the joy of a train horn kit for his truck. Not sure if he moved or if his closer neighbors had a discussion with him but the horn only lasted about a month.

That's very unusual. She's supposed to come through at ten after 4:00.

:1rotfl:

0.8 miles from tracks
 

My home in the village of Belvedere is 0.4 miles from the tracks. Between the tracks and my home, there is only a nature preserve and open farmland. By law, the train horn is blown before every railroad crossing. The sound is worse in the winter when most of the trees in a tree line do not have leaves. Most of the time, the horns are not a problem.

envious
 

I'm envious. We hardly ever get to hear a train where we live in Deluna, unless the weather conditions are just right. Most of my life has been spent within hearing distance of a train. I find it comforting somehow and it often helps me sleep. I miss it. Enjoy it while you can.

Every home we have lived in we hear trains. It's music to our ears. And I'm not tooting my own horn !

I would be more concerned about possible derailment of trains and their poison. I saw that some homes here are way too close to the tracks for the price charged. Home near train tracks are supposed to be cheaper as well.

Retired Engineer, here is Federal Railroad Administration whistle blowing regulations. Also if the crossing has gates and wig wags you can request a quiet zone
https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra....ct%20Sheet.pdf

I can show you some established, affluent Greater Boston neighborhoods with multi million dollar homes a stones throw away from train tracks where they clearly never got that memo!

Train horn too loud ?
 

Federal law requires that the horn must be loud enough to be heard 8 miles away. You can notice when the train passes a crossing because the signal required is to blow two longs a short and a long.
Trains CANNOT stop in the distance they can see the way cars can. They rely on signals and track circuits to tell them what speed to do and sometimes the circuit can control the speed. ( ATO) automatic train control. The system never tells them that a car is on the tracks. I am sure you have seen the damage a train does when it collides with anything.
Also, trains can be a half mile long and communication between crew members can be made with engine whistles.
The first rule of railroading is : safety first in the discharge of duty. Communication is a must.

This happens whenever the trains go through. They are required to do it. Interesting that you’ve never heard it, but the wind and atmospheric conditions have to be right for you to hear it two miles away. Do you want the train whistle to stop blowing? Would you also like drivers to turn off their car headlights because the lights hurt your eyes? There’s a song called “Where Do We Go from Here” by The Band that asks “How do you get to sleep when the whistle don’t blow?” I don’t often hear the whistle in the night, but I love it.

You get used to it! I have lived near the tracks and hear whistles blowing every night. Up in New England it is the Amtrak Downeaster and down here it’s all the trains running through Wildwood. Like I said you get used to it and after a while if you don’t hear them you start wondering why!

It's just an unhappy engineer figures if he has to be up at that time why should he be alone.

I am about a mile from the track, I love hearing the train, reminds me of my childhood riding them from NYC to my grandparents' in Baltimore. It never wakes me up, but sometimes I'm just awake.

The sound of my people!
 

Ahhhh, the sound of my people. After 25 years as a railroader and 17 as an engineer I try to be very aware of where the nearest railroad crossing or yard is when buying a home. I even called the Town Hall Office near our NC hame to see how often the train runs through town.
The 3 to 4 minutes thing if accurate, makes me think it was a horn kit. No reason for a train to sound a horn that long unless it was a malfunction.

We are off Rainey Trail, maybe a mile east of the tracks. Been here for just over 6 years, and while we’ve always heard the train, it seems to be much more frequent these past months. It has never really bothered us, but at this time of year when doors and windows are open, it’s much more noticeable, especially if one is not fully asleep during the night runs.

I never thought too much about it until the derailment and toxic spill in Ohio last year. We have no idea what’s zipping by in those tankers.

There is a new subdivision being built right up against those tracks. Those folks better hope that the builder puts in some good soundproofing!

:BigApplause::BigApplause:

I grew up in a town that had several train companies (is that what they were called?) that traveled through varying times of day. My family lived maybe a mile from a track and one could hear the trains at night if windows were open. It "does" depend on the atmosphere conditions etc. PLUS at night sounds travel more because it's also quiet. In the town we moved here from we lived about 6 or so miles from an Interstate. Windows open at night you could hear, though faintly, the traffic sounds from there. Probably mostly semi-trucks that time of night/day. Never in the day-light hours. Also lived about 10 miles from a race-track and you could hear the roar of those too....if outside, not in the house. Again---sound travels at night differently than the daytime. Trains don't bother me as it brings back childhood memories. What would bother me is if you had several tracks to cross to get to shopping, schools or hospitals----which we had to do, so tried to time it accordingly.

At least with the turnpike its just a faint hum in the background. Horns, regardless if on a train, car, or golf cart would drive me crazy.

May I suggest a villa in the Swiss Alps!
Just kidding

Love the ‘Blue Star Airlines’ Wall Street reference. Great movie!

Lucky you. I find the sound of a distant train horn to be relaxing.

Your comparing a train horn blasting for 4 straight minutes at 4:00am to the headlights on a car? What type of lawyer are you?

Unnecessary train horn blowing
 

We live about a half mile from the train tracks and know there are some train engineers that keep there hand on the horn purposely while going through The Villages. Most of their crossings leads to nowhere The Developer made quiet zones on several crossings so he could sell those houses in Souliere off of 42. Why he didn’t go all the way to 466 is beyond me
Michael Scotto. The Village of Chatham

You KNOW? How do you KNOW? If you KNOW that engineers are misusing their horns you should be reporting that to the appropriate authorities.

Bingo!

Get amazon echo and ask her to play ocean sounds. If windows are closed, you’ll only hear close by thunder/lightening

Makes me happy when I can leave window open so I can hear the train, but I also grew up near train tracks. We live in Summerhill.

Ia-il
 

Used to live by the Mississippi river and I kind of liked hearing the train horn - don't notice if you are asleep. Sounds like my old home

Sentimental Journey
 

We live in Calumet Grove and hear the train a lot. The crossing on 42 is a quiet zone but there are several more between there and 466 which are not. I'm not sure why they are blowing their horns along that stretch because I would not expect many cars out there at that time or trespassers or animals but who knows.

When we bought our house our real estate agent informed us about the train horns but we honestly don't mind them. You get used to it and you can add me to the list of lovers of that sentimental sound.

I grew up three houses away from the railroad tracks. Even after having been gone for 44 years, I still don’t “hear” trains if there is one nearby. They just don’t register unless I’m trying to cross a train track.

Required Train Horn Signals
 

All trains are required to signal their approach to public crossings with 2 long, 1 short and 1 long blast of their horns regardless of time. If this is what you heard, it was a train approaching a crossing. Weather conditions can greatly affect the distance sound travels.

Ride the Auto Train - the horn goes ALLLL night. Must be blown every crossing

We once lived in the country and could hear a train way off in the distance. I liked the sound, but it was far away. When the sound started coyotes would chime in and start howling.

Sleep with earplugs the wax ones are the best.