Monday, July 21, 2014

Train Whistles (Again)!

photo by Mathieu Tremblay, via Flickr
I have recently received a number of complaints from Beiseker residents about the noise created by the Canadian National Railway (CNR) when their trains whistle several times while going through town. 

I think it has to do with many having windows open during the night to cool down the house.  The still air and those open windows can make a train whistle pretty loud at 3:00 am!

I am going to ask representatives of the CNR to join us as a deligation at one of our council meetings so that we may ask them what is involved in having the trains stop their whistles. 

I'll let you know when we've arranged that meeting.  You're more than welcome to attend that meeting to get the info first hand.

8 comments:

  1. Just my two cents worth, we always have our bedroom window open all days of the year. But like so many other residents of Beiseker I have noticed lately that on some mornings the whistle blows non stop. This is not every time but some of the engineers seem to lean on the whistle a lot longer then others.

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  2. Hi Ray, Living directly across the street from the tracks and directly in the horn blowing zone.

    It's more noticeable because of the frequency of them. Nothing to due with the warmer weather. There seems to be alot more traffic since CN put in their new Calgary Logistics Park in Conrich. Just the other evening. One train came through around supper time and with 30 mins another one came through right behind it. Before they came through like clockwork (3-4 time daily). Now they seem to through more frequently and unscheduled.

    If you follow the tracks. We are on the main artery of this Logistic Park.

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  3. I believe it might have something to do with the liability involved in hitting a vehicle on the cross way.
    There are no flashing lights on the dump road, and I for one, am quite thankful for the horn/whistle....especially on the foggy days! Until the day comes, when people quit driving into the side of trains at rail crossings.....I think we are going to have to put up with it.

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  4. Here's my two bits, we live right next to the tracks and a few nights/ early morning it has been crazy. One night I thought something was wrong one night with how many times/length the train did honk. I actually waited for the crash sound. I'm not a whiner at all, and living next to the tracks I knew what I was getting into. But sometimes it's like "okay. We get it train. Now stop."

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  5. The reason they blow the whistle while going through town is we have uncontrolled and they have to worn that a train is coming to these crossings. Some of the engineers are on the whistle control more then others. It should be 3 short whistles. There are 3 uncontrolled crossings very close together around and in town.

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  6. All good points. I will relay those comments to the CNR when we meet. Thanks for the input. I don't know if these five comments were by five different people named Anon or the same person, but thanks anyway!

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    Replies
    1. It does make it difficult to follow up with commenters who sign as 'Anonymous.'

      I've tried to make it at least a little easier for folks to sign their name to their comment, but maybe the current setup isn't so easy to use for people who aren't familiar with it. Or maybe folks making those anonymous comments just don't want to? I don't know.

      Perhaps we need another way for people to leave comments? Something more accountable.

      Delete
  7. Even more annoying is the feeling of living In a noisy truck stop. Our once quiet residential street now has two semi trucks that idle in the early hours of the morning or night. The newest addition has a noisy refer unit running all night outside our bedroom window!! But low and behold they are gone every Tuesday!

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