"A critic is a gong at a railroad crossing clanging loudly and vainly as the train goes by." Christopher Marley
It's a common town peeve: it's the
middle of the night and the train is creeping its way through town
when all of a sudden you're awoken from your much needed deep REM
sleep by the blast of a train horn. We accept that the driver has to
blow his horn upon coming to an intersection but why does it seem
that more often than not he's literally laying
on the horn? And as long as we're talking about it, why is it that
from time to time they leave an engine idling all night
long? Can't they just turn the
thing off and start it back up in the morning?
Well, funny you
should ask. I was just asked these two questions (again) not too long
ago so I thought I would try and get a hold of someone at Progressive
Rail and see if I could get some answers. On my first phone call, I
got a real person (whose name is Joe) and asked him if he could
respond to these two common complaints.
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| Delivery to ABC Truss |
Why do the drivers have to blow
the horn in the middle of the night?
Federal
regulations
is the short answer to that question. According to 49 CFR Part 22
(otherwise known as the Train Horn Rule), “locomotive engineers
must begin to sound train horns at least 15 seconds, and no more than
20 seconds, in advance of all public grade crossings” regardless of
the time of day. As Joe explained to me, every engineer is required
not only to sound his horn before arriving at the crossing but until
his engine has passed entirely through the intersection. What's the
reasoning behind this rule? Simple: to prevent accidents. “Just the
other day a driver in plain day drove into the side of a train in
Faribault, Minnesota. So, if that happens in the daytime just imagine
the risk at night?” Apparently “distracted driving” is a
probable cause of this accident but the number one safety issue that
Progressive deals with, as you may have already guessed, is
intoxicated drivers. Joe acknowledged most of the drivers who drive
at night are the newer guys so perhaps they err on the side of
caution by laying on the horn a little longer than perhaps federally
mandated (not, as you might think, to antagonize the locals).
Why can't they just turn the
engine off rather than allow it to idle all night long?
“We
get asked this question all the time,” says Joe, “and frankly,
it's a NIMBY question (i.e. “Not In My Back Yard”). In other
words, for every person who believes that they are being
inconvenienced by the sound (and feel) of an idling engine all night
would they rather they move the thing in back of someone else's house
to do the same? I know for a fact that the person who asked me this
question wasn't asking that. They were just wondering why can't they
just turn the thing off and, like a car or a truck, start it up in
the morning? Well, a train engine is not like your family car and
from what I gathered from Joe's explanation is that it's just cheaper
to keep it running rather than uncouple it from the cars it's pulling
and park it in a quiet place somewhere. “The majority of the time,
the train will pass on through after picking up or dropping off its
load,” Joe informed me. “But once again we're bound by federal
regulations that state that for every 12 hours of work, railroad
employees are entitled to 10 hours of rest.” He's referring to the
Hours of Service Act that was amended in 1971 because of longstanding
complaints that crews were not getting adequate rest which was a
factor in many accidents. Since that time railroad crews are limited
to 12 hour shifts that must be followed by “10 hours of undisturbed
rest” in a 24 hour time period. So, on the occasion that an engine
is left to idle all night it's more than likely because of that rule.
They have to rest their guys and if it happens that they're in town
when their shift expires, well I guess that's the luck of the
draw.
So,
the long and short of it is this is the cost of doing business.
Regularly the trains pass through Chetek delivering lumber to ABC
Truss or hauling telephone poles from McFarland Cascade outside of
Cameron or carrying sand to one of the many wash plants south of
town. All this means jobs for local people, who live in houses and
pay property taxes, who buy their gas and their groceries and eat out
from time to time at our local restaurants. I guess when you frame
the question that way the sound of silence might not be a good sound
after all.
Do you have a question about stuff going on in town or about an ordinance
you think is unnecessary? Message me at my Facebook page (Jeff
Martin, Mayor) or at chetekmayor@cityofchetek-wi.gov.
I may not know the answer but I probably can find out.
