Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Train Whistles All Night Long-Can we fix this?
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September 4, 2013 at 9:24 pm #608970
PetitechicaMemberHello,
I don’t know if it’s just me but it seems like the trains have been blaring their whistles all night long lately. A few nights ago they blared every few minutes for a solid 2 hours! It’s gotten to the point where we have to close our windows and turn a fan on for white noise-and even with that we are still hearing the whistles. It is not great to have to close the windows when it was 80 outside and the house is still hot in the house at night, but the alternative has been being kept up all night. Does anyone have any insight as to what can be done? Is this just me getting frustrated? We live in High Point, so not all that close to the tracks but close enough to be kept awake by the whistles. Thanks for your input!
September 4, 2013 at 10:27 pm #797078
trickycooljParticipantHmm I am also in High Point and haven’t noticed any extra train whistles. Then again the children playing in the street well after 11pm on my block drown out everything but the occasional fire truck. I hope that with school starting today that they’ll be in bed well before 11pm.
September 4, 2013 at 10:59 pm #797079
TKDguyParticipantI’ve noticed it as well. The train horns have been going non-stop lately to the point that it is obnoxious. I don’t mind a little train noise here and there, but it goes on all throughout the night and just keeps blaring again and again. They woke me up this morning at 5:30am. I live around the area of 35th Ave and Fauntleroy by the way. I honestly don’t remember the train horns being so loud and persistent last year. I believe someone had a post on the train noise earlier this summer so I don’t think we are the only ones annoyed by this.
September 5, 2013 at 1:10 am #797080
JayDeeParticipantI’d invest in 30+ decibel ear plugs for now, and complain to…The City Council? Railroads of any type are notoriously insensitive to the concerns of others. Typically, it’s we were here first, etc. At worst they say to complain to the feds.
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I can hear them on the west side of the hill, but faintly. We have had inversions, and those typically reflect noise from further away.
September 5, 2013 at 1:54 am #797081
TKDguyParticipantI found this on the internet: https://westseattleblog.com/2008/08/honked-off-by-west-seattle-train-noise-new-group-wants-you
Apparently, there was a West Seattle Train Noise Action Committee in 2008 for the same issue, but it doesn’t look like it helped.
September 5, 2013 at 4:01 am #797082
WSBKeymasterI apologize to the OP, I was drafting a reply the other day and I don’t seem to have finished it. Yes, that effort was five years ago. Different administration in charge now, though, but the bottom line was that – kind of like the maritime industry with low-bridge openings – the train company seems to have absolute rule over the situation. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t complain, though. – TR
September 5, 2013 at 4:34 am #797083
Genesee HillParticipantThe more the merrier. Love the sound. zzzzzzz
September 5, 2013 at 4:36 am #797084
KK50ParticipantJust a quirk of mine, but every time I hear a train whistle blowin’ I think of ” Peace train sounding louder
Ride on the peace train
Hoo-ah-eeh-ah-hoo-ah
Come on the peace train “
Cat Stevens.
September 5, 2013 at 4:17 pm #797085
lindaParticipantI suspect the answer is there’s not much you can do. There were complaints from out of town baseball teams about the train whistles at Mariner’s stadium, they wanted to know if there was any way the could not sound off during the games. The answer was no, they are required to sound their horns when approaching intersections whether there are lights and gates or its unmarked. Makes me wonder if they are switching cars out requiring repeated moves across an intersection, causing it to feel like non-stop train whistles going.
KK50: For me it’s the song, “City of New Orleans” as covered by John Denver or “Ride the Train” by Alabama.
September 5, 2013 at 4:50 pm #797086
PLSParticipantIt is neither comforting nor musical for those of us negatively affected by it. It’s noise pollution pure and simple. The frequency and volume is abusive. Yes, there are laws for the trains to alert at crossings but listen and you will not hear only “two long, one short, and one long sounding horn, repeated as necessary until the locomotive clears the crossing.” It is much more than that. As stated above, though, it really doesn’t matter as absolutely nothing can be done. Perceived safety trumps quiet. Get some good earplugs and learn to tune them out as best you can.
September 5, 2013 at 5:13 pm #797087
TKDguyParticipantI agree with PLS that the train noise is abusive. I would say it is comparable to a neighbor’s car alarm going off repeatedly at 3am or a kid running up and down your street with an airhorn. It is not comforting and it certainly doesn’t help me get to sleep. It is excessive and apparently is unregulated. The worst part is earplugs and closed windows still can’t block out that noise.
September 5, 2013 at 8:26 pm #797088
mpentoParticipanthttp://seattletimes.com/html/bumpertobumper/2008314988_bumper27m.html
http://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0104
On the second link there is a link at the end with information on quiet zones. I seem to remember when I lived near interbay that occasionally the horns seemed worse than usual and a neighbor commented that there was some regulation about quiet times (like late night/ early in the morning) I also heard or read that sometimes when they are moving locomotives there might not be an operator on board. I think the interbay area was regulated because Magnolia was more “residential” (“$$$” ;))
September 6, 2013 at 12:15 am #797089
mark47nParticipantAs a former employee of the BNSF I can tell you that the locomotive operators are required by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to sound their horn as they approach a crossing, marked or unmarked.
In W. Seattle most, if not all, of the train operations noise comes from the Port of Seattle. In fact, if the conditions are right, you can hear all sorts of things from harbor island, from train noise to the air siren at the Vigor Shipyards – which signals large picks with the cranes and other large and dangerous moves i.e. flooding drydocks etc.
The Duwamish Industrial Zone has a rich history of heavy industrial activity, from the Port of Seattle to mining operations – in the form of mineral processing operations such as Calportland and Lafarge (who, unfortunately shutdown their kiln a few years ago due to age and cost, costing the area a few hundred jobs) – Nucor Steel/Seattle Steel/Birmingham Steel/Bethlehem Steel, which, as a foundry and manufacturer has been here since the 30’s(?)…I work there now. I hope people can learn to live with the sounds that existed in this place before they lived here. Many of these businesses are the engines of the local economy. I would argue that it’s not reasonable to move next to a railyard and then complain about the noise (yes, that’s hyperbole). And yes, I’ve lived next to a railyard and humpyard. I know about living with house shaking noise.
September 6, 2013 at 3:36 am #797090
PLSParticipantI guess you’re right Mark47N and I accepted that I’d have train and crashing and sirens but call me naive for not knowing that the Sound of Industry was 24 hours a day. How many people are actually driving across the tracks at 3 am anyway?
September 6, 2013 at 3:35 pm #797091
PLSParticipant/mistake
September 6, 2013 at 4:08 pm #797092
GrazieParticipantSinatra’s “Blues In The Night”
September 6, 2013 at 10:11 pm #797093
SonomaParticipantConsider buying a white-noise machine. I have one called a Sound Screen. It may not cover all the noise, but it certainly helps. You can adjust the volume settings. It’s a godsend when my partner in the next room is watching loud battle scenes on TV and I’m trying to read. Don’t know if it’s loud enough to drown out the choo-choo noise.
September 7, 2013 at 5:24 pm #797094
waynsterParticipantThe sounds of industrial might at work moving your most wanted goods to market and you want peace an quiet… I would say move to the country for theses sounds have been going on for years….think of it like a symphony orchestra playing in the summer nights for its sounds of the city hard at work and city’s never rest……..
September 13, 2013 at 3:29 am #797095
Genesee HillParticipantListen to Led Zeppelin. As loud as your Sansui Amp will play. With Headphones. Works for me.
September 14, 2013 at 6:06 am #797096
JoBParticipantthose of you who complain probably wouldn’t have liked my childhood home..
next to the train tracks..
on the right side.. of course ;->
the sound of the train whistles makes me dream about where those trains could take me..
always has.
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