Dear Mr. train conductor, Can you please explain to everyone why when your train is traveling at about five miles per hour you must honk like it’s going out of style?
I don’t know if you notice, but by each street crossing there’s lights and one even has a bar.
You get upset when the kids play on the tracks, but perhaps if you didn’t honk that much you would be attracting less attention.
Besides, at 11 PM, many people are sleeping, and I don’t think it’s necessary for you to keep your hand on the horn for your entire trip through Lakewood. Horns are for emergencies, not for notifying people of your grand arrival and departure.
Thank you.
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One, its a federal law that, for safety reasons, a train must sound its horn 15 to 25 seconds before entering an intersection w a public roadway util the front locomotive has passed through it. Two, if it is a nuisance, you can apply to the govt to make whatever crossing your refering to a “quiet zone” but you would have to prove that it would be safe for a train to pass through that intersection without sounding its horn (good luck doing that in Lakewood). Finally, I dont remember them adding new railroad tracks in the last say few decades so maybe you shouldve done a little research to where you were looking to live before you purchased or rented a home near said rail tracks. Just my opinion. Cheers!
Sorry Mr. aggravated, but before releasing some steam pls do yourself and all the Tls readers a favor and research/read up about train accidents and the safety measures put in place to avoid them.
Thank you!!
Federal Railroad Administration’s Train Horn & Quiet Zone Rule
Operating a safe and efficient railroad is Union Pacific’s top priority. Maintaining the safety of our employees, our customers and the general public is at the core of everything we do. For everyone’s safety, federal regulation requires locomotive horns be sounded for 15-20 seconds before entering all public grade crossings, but not more than one-quarter mile in advance. This federal requirement preempts any state or local laws regarding the use of train horns at public crossings.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) required pattern for blowing the horn is two long, one short, and one long sounding horn, repeated as necessary until the locomotive clears the crossing. Locomotive engineers retain the authority to vary this pattern as necessary for crossings in close proximity and are allowed to sound the horn in emergency situations.
The federal regulation concerning train horns is officially known as the FRA’s Final Rule on the Use of Locomotive Horns at Highway/Rail Grade Crossings and became effective June 24, 2005.
see https://www.up.com/real_estate/roadxing/industry/horn_quiet/index.htm for more information.
Lol, some people are so bored..
If everyone would stop parking on the tracks (esp by food ex) the train would have no need to honk. I get mad every time I go past food ex on Thursdays and see cars there because I know the train will honk & my kids may wake up
Unless the crossing is registered as a Quiet Zone they are required by law to honk at every crossing – 2 Long, 1 short and 1 long – train blasts.
you should check as it may be s requirement that the horns are used regardless of being needed when going threw a neighborhood. I seem to have heard this years ago in Lakewood.
The train was built long before your house was there and probably before you were born. Don’t buy a house near a railroad track and then try to stop the train. (I’m sure the realtor that sold the house to you convinced you that it’s nothing)
I’d like to see more done with teh train passing through lakewood. Would be great if businesses could would be able to utilize the rail lines…. At the very least we should get a free ride for kids every chol hamoed…
My house is no where near the tracks and I hear the horn blaring every Thurs night. It must be a newish driver because I don’t remember until recently (and I’m living here for 11 yrs) that the horn is so loud at 11 or 12pm . Sometimes I think that something must have happened on the tracks – like a person or car stuck there, and I’ll hear about the incident in the morning. But I never hear about anything that happened in the middle of the night and I forget about it until the next thurs night. For some reason that’s the only time I hear the train horn going crazy. No, it’s not right to make so much noise at that time of the night. It has woken me up. I used to hear a distant horn for a minute at around 7:30 on thurs and then a few hours later. But now the late night horn does sound like the driver is trying to wake up the neighborhood. I guess someone should record it and play it back. It’s not the sound of a simple train horn beeping while passing through. Something is going pn here.
And what are you going to say when “mr train conductor” drives through the intersections, doesn’t beep his horn, and someone /vehicle crosses and get’s hit. Will you ask why he didn’t let them know he was going through that intersection? Just asking. IT’S THE LAW! Get over yourself.
They are required to sound the horn as detailed in some of the other comments. A better question would be why the late hour. The train wakes up my kids every week. Perhaps they can schedule for early morning to pass through Lakewood. But really it is too bad, and this is something the realtor won’t tell you about, and it actually does affect quality of life.
#10 I was born and lived in Lakewood for 67 years. I live two blocks from the tracks on County Line Rd. Sound travels at night and living next to a synagogue and having small children playing (screaming) in the parking lot Friday and Saturday nights til sometimes past ten o’clock, I’ll take the train horns. The adults don’t seem to know what parenting means by allowing this behaviour.
There is always one that shows its true colors in every posting.
Thank you toot101.
I would usually agree with the train operator, but for the past several months it is quite obvious that the conductor is simply full of hate and venom. The blasting of the horns for 20-30 seconds at midnight or later at the loudest possible is not the norm. It’s just not common sense.
Why anyone would buy a home near RR crossing is beyond me i wouldnt take it if it was free
I called the NJ DOT a few years ago. The only way to avoid honking is if rails are installed at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. I called the train company to find out why they can readjust the schedule so they arrive during the day. They told me this train has a schedule set for the entire week and concludes with arriving in Lakewood Thursday night. They can’t change it because it would mess up the whole rest of the weeks schedule.
I think our best bet it to get together and petition the train company to change get the schedule to somehow get Lakewood onto a daytime delivery.
Recommendation: Buy a big fan and a noise maker and put the fan on full blast in your room. Put the noise maker on high volume. And you will not hear the train anymore! 😉
Its every Thursday night for past 20 years at least.
Mayb if they stop building so many houses it would slow down
Yeah sounds great change the time and do it at rush hour so know your sitting in traffic, real good solution. Just stop complaining grow up
Joe thinks he Knows colors in his posting but it boils down to respect of quality of life no matter who or what you are. Noise is noise no matter what.
U know what let’s silence all the trains, let’s ban horns in cars, lets take the sirens out of emergency vehicles, let’s take the batteries out of smoke detectors, let’s take the smell out of toxic gas…. so we can live a peaceful quiet life 😉
Or move to another planet!!!!
If you don’t like it, move! Some things YOU have NO control over. Cry to your mommy!
For years it’s been about 730 every Thursday and noone complained but midnight is not normal! My 2 yr old woke up screaming and I dont live so close to the tracks. He is still talking about the “scary noise train come my house” he’s traumatized. What can we do to get rid of the midnight blast of horn?
I lived in Lakewood 15-20 years ago, almost a mile away from the tracks – and we still heard the horn when it came through at a quiet hour (late at night or early in the morning, I don’t remember which). There’s got to be a better horn they can install more cheaply than new tracks — a horn that makes enough noise to clear the tracks but not to be heard across town.