Passenger Trains > Freight Horn - Menlo Park (Caltrain Line) 1120am 3-2??

So what did I hear this morning in Menlo Park CA on the Caltrain Line???
It sounded like a traditional SP style "P" series horn on a train (1980s era reminder of SP Stockton).
The UP freights almost NEVER run over the Caltrain main during the midday.
The freight trains usually run in the late evening hours (post PM rush hour).
This oddly-timed horn was heard again at 11:20 AM friday March 2 2007.
It sounded like it was heading in a southbound direction.
I MAY have heard a second train a few minutes later.
This was actually a new style P3 horn I heard
http://atsf.railfan.net/airhorns/p3.html
Thank you very much in advance for any additonal info!
--- Daniel

Sure it wasn't one of Caltrain's work train engines? One of the Geeps was puttering around the yard in San Jose yesterday.

The "pride" of the fleet, GP9 #500 went on a joy-ride to Redwood City with some JPB and Caltrain
folk. Train is getting ready to come back to San Jose.

Have a good day.

TopCat

Five Chime Consultants tried very hard to get Cal Train to go with the old SP standard P3. They even borrowed a few of them from us for a test. That was actually a sham however because the P2s were already being installed on the locomotives under construction in Idaho.

FiveChime Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Five Chime Consultants tried very hard to get Cal
> Train to go with the old SP standard P3. They even
> borrowed a few of them from us for a test. That
> was actually a sham however because the P2s were
> already being installed on the locomotives under
> construction in Idaho.

Anything that is loud is out for Caltrain. They are too busy trying to be "good neighbors" to the whiny residents of a couple of Peninsula cites. I guess any horn however is better than no horn quiet zones. These people should have no right to complain however. When passenger trains started running on that line between SF and SJ, Abraham Lincoln was president and most of the communities on the peninsula were non-existent at the time.

I remember the day when you lived near the tracks, airport, freeway, (insert anything noisy or polluting) because that was all that you could afford and no one else wanted to live next to the noise, smoke, whatever. People understood the concept of "got there first"

Somehow back in the 80s a few whiny people, with nothing better to do, figured out if they whined enough they could get every government agency in America throw out the concept of "got there first" and change it to "one who complains the most wins."

Look in any paper across America and if you find a local "group" protesting something - trains, planes or automobiles and you will find a very small percent of the overall population with a very personal agenda. They either live close by or stand to profit by a project not going in.

Recent case and point - Powder River coal line. Be that what you think but the Mayo Clinic is squealing way too loud for just "nuisance" I'm not a local, but I'd lay my money on the Clinic getting a big chunk of land if the railroad was to disappear.

Back to the bay area, if the locals had there way Caltrain would be the one stopping at grade crossings and anyone close to the tracks.

Just my two cents after a very long day,
Daylight

daylight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Somehow back in the 80s a few whiny people, with
> nothing better to do, figured out if they whined
> enough they could get every government agency in
> America throw out the concept of "got there first"
> and change it to "one who complains the most
> wins."

This is so true. In the whiny peninsula city that I work for, just one person complaining loud enough to the city council is enough to bring any project to a halt.

We're just getting started with the whining here in Steilacoom, WA. A few folks who live near the tracks (which have been there forever) are trying to get the rest of us to pay for a crossing warning system so the trains won't have to sound the horns at two intersections in town. They're talking amazing amounts of money!


Pete