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!