Hearing Train Horns

I live right next to a stop. All hours of the night we hear the trains, Amtrak and others, horns as they go by. When your in the passenger cars, are you awakened by the horns? Are they as loud as when they pass the house? LOL Someone tried to tell me you cannot hear it onboard. Seems absurd to me, but I figured I'd ask!

You do hear it, but certainly not as load as you do, since the cars are insulated. For some, it is music to our ears! We wish It was louder or more frequent.

Frank said:

I live right next to a stop. All hours of the night we hear the trains, Amtrak and others, horns as they go by. When your in the passenger cars, are you awakened by the horns? Are they as loud as when they pass the house? LOL Someone tried to tell me you cannot hear it onboard. Seems absurd to me, but I figured I'd ask!

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It is a lot harder to hear the horn in the train:

1) The horn faces forward with the engine partially blocking the sound to the rear. After all, it is not intended to tell those behind that the train has passed.

2) Many of those cars are quite a distance behind the engine so the sound becomes quieter.

3) The cars are closed up metal boxes with heavy windows.

Depends on how far back you are and what's around. At the back of the train in flat open ground, you probably wouldn't notice it.

At the front of the train in a tunnel, it's pretty loud (but still much quieter than outside).

I love hearing them but, not a bother when I'm sleeping. If I wake up, I want to hear them!

Frank said:

I live right next to a stop. All hours of the night we hear the trains, Amtrak and others, horns as they go by. When your in the passenger cars, are you awakened by the horns? Are they as loud as when they pass the house? LOL Someone tried to tell me you cannot hear it onboard. Seems absurd to me, but I figured I'd ask!

Click to expand...

If your car is one of the first two or three on the train then it can be pretty darn loud when they blow the horn, especially if you're moving slowly or you're in a canyon or near a wall or moving under a bridge or other structure. If you're not a sound sleeper it can absolutely wake you up. Anyone who tells you different probably isn't being entirely honest with you. If you ride often enough you will probably get used to it and may even come to enjoy it, but it's not something everyone enjoys or gets used to.

me_little_me said:

It is a lot harder to hear the horn in the train:
1) The horn faces forward with the engine partially blocking the sound to the rear. After all, it is not intended to tell those behind that the train has passed.

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What about when the engine is operating in reverse?

me_little_me said:

3) The cars are closed up metal boxes with heavy windows.

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Here in the desert it's easy to tell which air is from inside and which is from outside and I can assure anyone who's reading this that most cars are anything but closed up.

leemell said:

Devil's Advocate said:

Frank said:

I live right next to a stop. All hours of the night we hear the trains, Amtrak and others, horns as they go by. When your in the passenger cars, are you awakened by the horns? Are they as loud as when they pass the house? LOL Someone tried to tell me you cannot hear it onboard. Seems absurd to me, but I figured I'd ask!

Click to expand...

If your car is one of the first two or three on the train then it can be pretty darn loud when they blow the horn, especially if you're moving slowly or you're in a canyon or near a wall or moving under a bridge or other structure. If you're not a sound sleeper it can absolutely wake you up. Anyone who tells you different probably isn't being entirely honest with you. If you ride often enough you will probably get used to it and may even come to enjoy it, but it's not something everyone enjoys or gets used to.

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I'm being entirely honest and I can say that the horn has never awakened me and I have ridden in the CS, EB, SWC, SL, Crescent, Cardinal all in sleeper. I have been awakened by very rough track, especially in North Dakota.

leemell said:

I'm being entirely honest and I can say that the horn has never awakened me and I have ridden in the CS, EB, SWC, SL, Crescent, Cardinal all in sleeper. I have been awakened by very rough track, especially in North Dakota.

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I don't think we're actually disagreeing. If you're not a sound sleeper it might wake you up. No guarantee that it will or that it will not, just that it can happen if you're not a sound sleeper or if you're not used to it. Anyone who claims otherwise probably not being sincere about the situations. That's what I was trying to say anyway.

I also live right next to the Amtrak tracks. The train horn is MUCH, MUCH louder when it passes our street, even with our windows closed, than it is when you're on the train. I promise.

When you're on the train, depending on which car you're in, the horn is kind of like when the train is a few blocks or so from your house - you know that point where your ears register that the train is approaching but it's not loud yet? It's about that level, not the level when it goes by and you can't hear the TV. When our windows are open in the summer, I have to pause phone conversations until it passes.

I LOVE trains, so it doesn't bother me (we chose to live by the tracks just so I could hear/watch them), but light sleepers who aren't used to train horns and/or don't like them tend to lose sleep on the train. I'm the opposite; the steady sound of the horn puts me to sleep. :wub:

Devil's Advocate said:

me_little_me said:

It is a lot harder to hear the horn in the train:
1) The horn faces forward with the engine partially blocking the sound to the rear. After all, it is not intended to tell those behind that the train has passed.

Click to expand...

What about when the engine is operating in reverse?

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Then the horn sucks in the sound and you can't hear the other train behind you. :giggle:

I've never seen a P42 lead an Amtrak train backwards. And, I believe, though I could be wrong, that most locos designed for bidirectional travel have horns at both ends but only the ones in the direction of travel are active.

Frank said:

I live right next to a stop. All hours of the night we hear the trains, Amtrak and others, horns as they go by. When your in the passenger cars, are you awakened by the horns? Are they as loud as when they pass the house? LOL Someone tried to tell me you cannot hear it onboard. Seems absurd to me, but I figured I'd ask!

Click to expand...

WRONG! You can hear it but not nearly as loud as being outside the train...darn it. I love the train horns.