Throughout our history, railroad engineers have been using train horns for the purpose of warding off wild animals that stray onto the track. In addition to this they will use it to inform drivers that the train is nearing them. Then again it can also be used to tell railroad workers that a section of track needs to be worked on.
In the beginning, the train horns were simply air horns from trucks. They suffered from one major flaw though: the engine was louder than the horn. For this reason a new horn was created, and it used what is known as oscillation. From that point on, oscillating train horns have been in use. From the nineties onward, trains stopped using a cord for the train horn, and now they use a pedal, making it much easier for the engineer to sound the horn.
Train horns are not made for personal use, even though for a few years train horns and truck air horns were very popular. While driving down the road people would hear a train horn when they were not near a railroad crossing and would be looking and expecting to see a train. This has caused numerous accidents. Finally after many accidents by personal air horn and train horn users a law was passed prohibiting the use of train and air horns by individual automobile users.
Train horns are not the same all over the world. Take Europe for example. Every country in Europe has a different train horn sound. France and Italy are completely different! But if you have a company which is stationed in several different countries, the sound might be the same in all countries. It is a very complicated system.
Jessie James was a famous outlaw throughout the’00’s, and due to the number of trains he robbed, new laws were passed. The railroad companies asked the courts to grant them the ‘no stop law’, which would permit an engineer to keep going no matter what. The engineer would not need to stop or yield for anything. This helped cut back on the number of train robberies.
Over time people began to complain about the noise that the train horn would put off. It wasn’t the sound of the engine that bothered them, it was the actual horn. This led to people in Florida petitioning for a ‘quiet zone’. In this quiet zone the train would not be allowed to use the horn, and regrettably this law actually passed. For the longest time trains could not make a peep as they traveled on their route, but a quiet train led to loud accidents. Laws regarding automobiles became much stricter later on. For instance, cars would now need to stop for a pair of flashing arms that descended over the train crossing. If they failed to stop and tried to circumvent it, they were subject to serious fines or even jail time. One thing to remember is that the train laws are there for a reason. We take a risk if we try to get around them, so keep this in mind.
Yves B. Geller wrote this article. He is primarily a car hobbyist but he shows his passion for cars through vehicle customization. He offers train horns to car, truck and boat owners but he is a firm believer that a train horn should be used responsibly.