Sugar Land Council Considers Adding Wayside Horns To Railroad Crossings by Bob Dunn, Tuesday May 16, 2006 Sugar Land City Council may act on a proposal tonight the city believes would bring a measure of quiet to the U.S. 90A corridor. City staff is asking council to approve a contract for about $687,000 to buy and install so-called wayside horns at 10 railroad crossings near U.S. 90A. A 2005 federal law allows communities with installed wayside horns to prohibit railroads from using train-mounted horns, according to material provided to the council. Wayside horns – directional horns aimed along the roadways – reduce noise because their volume and duration can be monitored and adjusted. “Their directional nature further allows the sound to be directed toward its intended audience, the motorist, and minimize noise in adjacent neighborhoods,” Interim City Engineer Patrick Walsh said in a report to council. “Reports from communities with existing wayside horns have been highly favorable over train-mounted horns.” Walsh said the horns would be located within railroad right-of-way at 10 railroad crossing from Dairy Ashford Road through the private entrance to a Nalco Holding Co. operation. The staff report said no horns would be placed at the State Highway 6 railroad crossing “because of conflicts with TxDOT’s ongoing construction in that area.” Railroad Controls Limited is the city staff’s vendor of choice for providing the horns. The company is the only maker of the devices in the United States, Walsh said in his report. Each wayside horn includes a red indicator light in the shape of an X, which goes dark in the event of any malfunction. Theoretically, a train engineer would not sound the train horn if he or she spots the red X. Walsh noted that the City of Sugar Land has not ret reached an agreement with Union Pacific Railroad that would allow the installation of wayside horns. Thus, Walsh said, the contract with Railroad Controls Limited for the horns “allows for RCL to move forward with only the purchasing of materials immediately in lieu of the agreement. This subjects the City to only the risk of a 20% restocking fee on the materials in the unlikely event an agreement cannot be reached” with Union Pacific.
Can you say "waste of taxpayer's money"? I knew you could To quote the late Groucho Marx, "That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!" What a waste of good money, just so the average citizen can avoid common sense & not worry about those mean, noisy ol' trains interrupting their teas on the verandah, or stopping their Beemers from crossing those awful tracks to get to the Starbucks. Gads, how inconvenienced they must be!
They're replacing a horn with a horn pointing it down the street rather than along the tracks, then have the facility to adjust the volume and duration.... ok, I'll bite... And here I am thinking Federal law has precedence over local.
What if the light to indicate a malfunction malfunction's? What if the engineer see's a red light but it is not an X? After a month they will be stolen.
Who are they fooling? People would not pay attention to that either with there cel-phone and loud radio's. They already go around the gates when they are in a down position and the lights are flashing. Find another more constructive way to spend the money.
My solution, FWIW Instead of this crap, install crossing gates that come down over BOTH sides of the road so that motorists won't be able to dodge around a lowered gate. Then (and here's the apparently tricky part) teach motorists in the area to STOP-LOOK-AND LISTEN before crossing tracks. If the lights are flashing and the gates are down, there's a pretty good chance a train is very, very close by. Instruct them in a basic law of physics- no matter if their lawyer is Racehorse Haynes or the local shyster, a 2500-pound car meeting up with a 5,000-10,000 TON train in motion will come out the worst in the encounter. No legislation, no team of lawyers, or no frustrated yuppies can change this irrefutable fact.
Agree, sounds like another reason to spend money so people do not have to use the common sense factor and raise taxes.
Yup. That's it. As already noted, aside from little or no common sense, stereos and cell phones will continue to aid in people dying. Full gates, assuming there is no malfunction, is the safest route. But a lot of $$$ to the RR. :sad: Boxcab E50
BLAST THOSE HORNS ! safety should be the only concern, don't like horns, move. This is the same as moving next to a airport, then start ¤¤¤¤¤ing about all the noise. http://www.groverairhorns.com/train/train.html
I agree 100%! If they don't like the noise of a railroad or airport they should move. Chances are that the tracks and runways were there long before the complainers moved in.
