(The Associated Press circulated the following story on November 25.)
MAXWELL, Neb. — Village board members are considering an automated horn system at the town’s main railroad crossing in hopes of cutting noise from locomotive horns in residential neighborhoods.
The automated system is a stationary horn activated by the railroad-highway grade crossing warning system and is mounted at the crossing rather than on the locomotive.
While the stationary horn is longer and louder than the locomotive horns, its placement at the crossing keeps locomotives from blasting horns near homes and businesses as it approaches the crossing.
The result is less noise coming into buildings.
Locomotive engineers are required by federal regulation from the Department of Transportation to sound the horn on the locomotive as they approach public crossings.
“It usually winds up being four soundings, and it usually starts about a quarter mile from the crossing,” Union Pacific spokesman Gene Hinkle said of locomotive horns. “The engineer is required to sound the horn until he gets into the crossing.”
Upon receiving a signal from the railroad’s track circuit warning system, the stationary horn mimics the train horn warning by cycling through the standard railroad whistle pattern until the train reaches the crossing.
Once the train enters the crossing, the automated horn stops sounding.
A confirmation signal notifies the locomotive engineer that the automated system is functioning properly.
When the engineer confirms the signal is flashing and the automated horn system is working, the engineer doesn’t need to sound the train’s horn.
Two automated horns already are in place in at least two other Nebraska communities, Maxwell Village Clerk Nan King said.
Village officials are waiting for approval from the Federal Railway Administration to put in the new horn.
“We expect that approval sometime within the next couple of weeks,” King said.
Installation of the system would cost the village between $50,000 and $70,000.