News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 7.4K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 37K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 3.7K     0 

RS3488 said:
Well, really only the Barrie Line has a lot of horn enabled crossings, all the other ones have mostly quiet zones initiated or have grade separations as mentioned.
Click to expand...
Honestly we should be investing in the low hanging fruit of having the crossings at least upgraded to allow for quiet zones... the horn and the bell is such a draconian and obsolete protocol. Hardly any other railroad in the world uses this apart from NA.
 
cplchanb said:
Honestly we should be investing in the low hanging fruit of having the crossings at least upgraded to allow for quiet zones... the horn and the bell is such a draconian and obsolete protocol. Hardly any other railroad in the world uses this apart from NA.
Click to expand...
But then by the time the frequent 3-8 min service arrives there would be more backing of traffic. Even if quiet zones are effective, traffic would get backed up way more with the frequent service blocking crossings.

I think we should mostly focus on getting rid of most of the grade crossings within the RER zone, like ssiguy2 mentioned.
 
Also while the horns are something that could be likely limited in most areas, it would have to take the FRA and Transport Canada to change the regulations to limit bell ringing, cause it's required that they have to do it at when entering or exiting stations, and even at quiet zone crossings.
 
RS3488 said:
Also while the horns are something that could be likely limited in most areas, it would have to take the FRA and Transport Canada to change the regulations to limit bell ringing, cause it's required that they have to do it at when entering or exiting stations, and even at quiet zone crossings.
Click to expand...
That's the thing... fra and tc won't do any proactive to modernize their standards. This bell and whistle thing is from the wild west and is seriously dinosaur. Same with the regs on train design. It's just a shame that we tout ourselves to be the most developed nation in the world but in reality things like these just proves otherwise
 
cplchanb said:
That's the thing... fra and tc won't do any proactive to modernize their standards. This bell and whistle thing is from the wild west and is seriously dinosaur. Same with the regs on train design. It's just a shame that we tout ourselves to be the most developed nation in the world but in reality things like these just proves otherwise
Click to expand...
Well, then I guess the only thing then is to see whether the FRA and TC will end up modernizing their standards. And to be fair since CalMod is getting the Stadler KISS, that may open the doors for more railroads to move towards EMU models, allowing for standardization of European designs for new regional railroads.
 
I sure as hell wouldn't want a horn going by my place every 8 minutes all day and evening. It would be enough to drive any sane person nuts. Also, as RS3488 mentioned, when the whole system kicks in, traffic at these non-grade separated sections will become a nightmare. It should be a priority for MK to get rid of all grade crossings at least by 2026 on the RER sections and then expand it as the system gets bigger and busier.

While I tend to have zero empathy for people who bitch about trains even though they decided to live right beside a railway track, this is different. These horns can be heard up to a KM away. This is not a NIMBY issue but a quality of life one and the need for a relatively quiet urban existence is not unreasonable.
 
cplchanb said:
What are the differences between the horns? On YouTube theg both sound virtually the same
Click to expand...
The issue is more that TC have mandated that all passenger trains have 2 different horn outputs. The "regular" is tuned to about 95db, with an "emergency" tuned to about 110db.

How they do this is totally up to the individual railways - most have set up a second horn control circuit and second set of horns, but GO has decided to modify their horns with a dual manifold so that only 3 bells operate in one mode, and 2 in the other.

Dan
 
smallspy said:
The issue is more that TC have mandated that all passenger trains have 2 different horn outputs. The "regular" is tuned to about 95db, with an "emergency" tuned to about 110db.

How they do this is totally up to the individual railways - most have set up a second horn control circuit and second set of horns, but GO has decided to modify their horns with a dual manifold so that only 3 bells operate in one mode, and 2 in the other.

Dan
Click to expand...

Old-timer engineers will refer to blowing the “town horn” - on older locomotives with a hand-pulled whistle valve it was possible to feather the horn to reduce the volume when desired. Newer locos and cab cars have a push button so the horn is mostly either on or off.

- Paul
 
Last edited:
On another note, here is a high quality picture of GO Transit Cab Car 212 with newly added numberboards. Must be signaling a return that could even be within this season. Photo credit to Nico Anello.
IMG_3755.jpg
 
Sometimes we take safety far to serious to protect the extremely fringe cases. Its very easy to not get hit by a train, very easy! Stay off the tracks!
 
drum118 said:

BYD Double Decker Passes FTA Durability Testing​

Click to expand...
Honestly a possibility for GO., with the ADL facility in Concord closed, BYD’s new facility in Newmarket (I don’t think they’ve built anything since the buses for Toronto and Longueuil), and a government keen on keeping jobs in the Province. However, I’ve heard GO’s not in the market for any more double deckers. Though BYD has a full product line, and God knows they’d probably be happy to come up with something custom for GO.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Top