Passenger Trains > station stop horn signal?

On occasion I have witnessed the engineer of the EB Wolverine (#350) sound a signal blast of the horn after stopping at the Hammond-Whiting station. Anyone else experience the same thing with other passenger trains?

A single blast of the horn is described as indicating stop or stopping, applying air brakes, according to a couple of online sources.

I have seen and heard this done often on various trains and lines.

It is a signal to the conductor and attendants that the engineer has stopped the train and will not be moving it any more, thus it is safe to have crew and passengers enter/exit.

I presume this can be done by radio message also.

Several theme parks with railroads announce requests/instructions for passengers to remain seated until hearing the engineer sound the whistle indicating that is okay to exit from the train.

Michael

Also, the train may be sitting just clear of a crossing. One long blast will activate the crossing equipment.


Nudge

spnudge Wrote:
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> Also, the train may be sitting just clear of a
> crossing. One long blast will activate the
> crossing equipment.
>
>
> Nudge


I have never seen that. Can you give an example of where crossing systems are activated by sound?

1976 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> spnudge Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Also, the train may be sitting just clear of a
> > crossing. One long blast will activate the
> > crossing equipment.
> >
> >
> > Nudge
>
>
> I have never seen that. Can you give an example of
> where crossing systems are activated by sound?

These were very prevalent on the former SP wherever a passenger train stopped in a station, and there was a road crossing very close to the engine. At least lets say within the distance for signaling equipment to detect movement and activate the crossing protection sufficiently in advance.

Santa Barbara at the State St crossing for Eastbound Passenger trains is the first example both Nudge and I will cite. If the track circuit is shunted, a microphone mounted on a pole just to the right of the track, with a "megaphone" style pickup pointed at the place where the engine usually stops is activated. One long blast of the whistle will cause the gates to lower without the engine moving.
G

Not the case at Hammond/Whiting...especially going east.

I'd put money on the simple explanation that the engineer likes to hear himself toot.


ExSPCondr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 1976 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > spnudge Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Also, the train may be sitting just clear of
> a
> > > crossing. One long blast will activate the
> > > crossing equipment.
> > >
> > >
> > > Nudge
> >
> >
> > I have never seen that. Can you give an example
> of
> > where crossing systems are activated by sound?
>
> These were very prevalent on the former SP
> wherever a passenger train stopped in a station,
> and there was a road crossing very close to the
> engine. At least lets say within the distance for
> signaling equipment to detect movement and
> activate the crossing protection sufficiently in
> advance.
>
> Santa Barbara at the State St crossing for
> Eastbound Passenger trains is the first example
> both Nudge and I will cite. If the track circuit
> is shunted, a microphone mounted on a pole just to
> the right of the track, with a "megaphone" style
> pickup pointed at the place where the engine
> usually stops is activated. One long blast of the
> whistle will cause the gates to lower without the
> engine moving.
> G

Posted from Android

1976 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> spnudge Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Also, the train may be sitting just clear of a
> > crossing. One long blast will activate the
> > crossing equipment.
> >
> >
> > Nudge
>
>
> I have never seen that. Can you give an example of
> where crossing systems are activated by sound?

I recall seeing these on the
SP/caltrans commuter service on the peninsula South of San Francisco. As another poster has noted, the microphones were on poles near where the cab car or loco would be stopping.

Posted from Android

>> I have never seen that. Can you give an example of where crossing systems are activated by sound?

Redding CA, Fremont, CA. At one time they were all up and down the SF peninsula line. It should be pointed out that the crossings are activated by track circuits etc., not engine whistles. The sound activation feature is an add-on so that at a station stop near a grade crossing, once the trains tops moving, the crossing protection circuits will time out so the gates can go back up to allow road traffic to pass while the train is loading/unloading passengers. Then upon being highballed by the C, the engineer blows the whistle, which causes the gates to come back down (for "gates" read "flashers or flashers and gates"). On the SP's SF Peninsula line, sound activation dates back to at least the late 1950s, early 1960s.

And the receiver for westbound trains stopped at Santa Barbara was just shy of Montecito Street. One or two long blasts of the horn and down came the gates.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/17 12:23 by espee51.

While this might be a California/SP thing, Indiana stations fit neither of those criteria.

In Fraser, Colorado, passengers leave the train for a smoke break or whatever. When the whistle blows, everyone knows to get back on. Could the OP's observation be that?

symph1 Wrote:
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> In Fraser, Colorado, passengers leave the train
> for a smoke break or whatever. When the whistle
> blows, everyone knows to get back on. Could the
> OP's observation be that?


I don't think the corridor services out of Chicago offer smoke-break stops, and if they did, Hammond-Whiting would not be one of the pertinent locations to do so.

The OP referred to a whistle being blown as the train stops, anyway -- not upon or just before its departure.

Welp I tried...and no, HMI is not a smoke stop so that's not it either.

1976 Wrote:
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> While this might be a California/SP thing, Indiana
> stations fit neither of those criteria.

Posted from Android

Dunno what rules they use, but GCOR 5.8.2 specifies that one long whistle signal is required when stopped, air brakes are applied, and pressure has equalized.

NS Rulebook.

I'm telling you, it's some engineer just adding his own personal touch to the assignment.

There's no written rule or instruction about Amtrak trains being required to do this. I certainly never did on any of the few hundred trains I stopped there, before I bid out of the zone...

Posted from Android

The SP Commute Train locomotives would sound 2 blasts... and the gates would come down. I remember it well.

2472Don
Manoa Valley, O'ahu

>> I have never seen that. Can you give an example of where crossing systems are activated by sound?

Just watch a Caltran cab ride video on another video site that showed crossing arms being activated by the sound of the horn with no train movement just before the train left the station.

UnitAlarm Wrote:
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> Dunno what rules they use, but GCOR 5.8.2
> specifies that one long whistle signal is required
> when stopped, air brakes are applied, and pressure
> has equalized.


It does not require such action. Most of those whistle signals date back to pre radio days. All signals other than 1, 7 and 8 may be disregarded if you read the rule. Setandcentered has it. Also a lot of engineers will use a short blast as a form of acknowledgement when the Conductor says "that will do". I'd put money on that being the case. I don't care for it, but I bet you anything.

Like I said before, whatever happens on Caltrain/SP/Coaster/I don't care who's railroad/etc, there aren't any such crossings at the Hammond Whiting station.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/17 00:05 by 1976.

1976 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> UnitAlarm Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Dunno what rules they use, but GCOR 5.8.2
> > specifies that one long whistle signal is
> required
> > when stopped, air brakes are applied, and
> pressure
> > has equalized.
>
>
> It does not require such action. Most of those
> whistle signals date back to pre radio days. All
> signals other than 1, 7 and 8 may be disregarded
> if you read the rule. Setandcentered has it. Also
> a lot of engineers will use a short blast as a
> form of acknowledgement when the Conductor says
> "that will do". I'd put money on that being the
> case. I don't care for it, but I bet you anything.
>
>
> Like I said before, whatever happens on
> Caltrain/SP/Coaster/I don't care who's
> railroad/etc, there aren't any such crossings at
> the Hammond Whiting station.

Nowhere in this rule does it say that these signals may be disregarded. They may be replaced with other forms of communication.

Most engineers give some warning for basic movements of their trains. One horn blast, stop. Two for moving ahead. Three for backing up. Its that simple. All those conform to GCOR standards for whistle signals.

I have observed numerous Amtrak trains east of Chicago over my many years of train-watching. The number of times I have heard the one-long-blast whistle signal for the beginning of a station stop could probably be counted without taking my shoes off. In fact, I probably wouldn't even know about this signal if not for its common use for photo runbys during non-Amtrak railfan excursions.

I remember the two short blasts for departure from my childhood, when commuter trains on the New Haven Line regularly used it. I hear it these days on Amtrak trains from time to time, but certainly not reliably. New Haven Line crews now use train intercom buzzers for this purpose and have for 45 years.

Whatever the referenced Amtrak engineer is doing at Holland-Whiting, it is neither illegal nor necessary, and it certainly has nothing to do with the crossing protection.