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Noisy Trains Are an Eastside Bane, It's Plain
Scanning our local daily newspaper this week, The Eye noticed that an Eastsider named Lisa Burley is trying to get the city to do something
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As a West Hills-area resident, I can say with some authority that the excessive use of train horns DOES affect the west side of town. It echoes against the side of the hill pretty loudly, and is the bane of those of us who sleep at night. It’s significantly quieter in the lower elevations, so residents of the mill shacks and mcMansions nearer the river have it much better.
Olde-Tymer: I’m very skeptical about your statement. I’d like to put a decibel meter in your bedroom and one in my bedroom some night and see where the train horns sound louder. I live about a mile from the Reed Market grade crossing and, damn, those horns are LOUD. I’m not hearing “echoes” off a hillside — I’m hearing the noise DIRECTLY.
And I swear some of those engineers take a sadistic pleasure out of really leaning on that horn as long as possible.
I live between the OMD and downtown in one of the Old Mill shacks, 1 block from the train tracks. I used to live further west in this area in a 2 story house and the sound of the train was much worse further away (and west) than where I live now. The train issue is not an east side vs. west side issue. You can hear the trains as loudly at my friend’s house on the east side of Awbrey Butte as you can by my friend’s house on the East side. Stop making this an east vs. west issue. If you’re going to buy a house ANYWHERE in Bend, do your due diligence and spend some time here and listen before you buy. If you have a problem with trains, then Bend is not the place for you to live east or west side.
Having come from Carlsbad, CA, where the Amtrak and Coaster commuter lines blow their horns repeatedly and frequently in wealthy coastal SoCal communities, I can say that the subject of “quiet zones” came up over and over again. The cost of implementing the needed safety improvements is substantial. But the real deal-breaker, as I understand it, is that the city is required to assume liability for any accidents that occur at the crossings.
I live in Broken Top on the West Side and I don’t think I have ever heard the train. Didn’t even know it was a problem until I read the Bulletin editorial.
mcC: I have never lived on the Westside but I have spent plenty of time there and I have never ONCE even heard the sound of a train horn over there. There may be some quirky acoustical properties that allow the horns to be heard in certain places, but you’ll have a mighty hard time convincing me that somebody living 10 miles from a crossing is going to hear as much train noise as somebody a mile away.
And yes, I fully realized the railroad was there when we bought our home in Bend 24 years ago, but I did not realize the trains would be sounding their horns all night long. In fact I think the federal regulation requiring them to do that might not even have been in force when we moved here.
god forbid they should ever build any road overpasses. yes it would be more expensive but it would solve all these problems at once.
and no the train engineers do not take sadistic pleasure in blowing the horns any particular way. They drive through hundreds of road crossings and many hundreds of miles. They just want to avoid hitting you, as much as you want to avoid hitting them.
I live in DRW where the horns are very quiet (some parts) and I would trade to waste less gas, depending on where you live.
I’ve lived in the Hippie District = two blocks from the mill, downtown and the tracks – pretty much all my life, never heard a train. Me thinks thou dost protest too much – not unusual for around here.
I lived on the Westside – on second street up Awbrey Butte for nine years. I always heard the train at night. If you’re on the Butte above treeline the sound carries over. But. . .not very loudly. Certainly not loud enough to wake you up. I actually enjoyed the mournful cry of those trains.
“I actually enjoyed the mournful cry of those trains.”
“Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance.” — Paul Simon
True. But not the sound of a train practically in your back yard.
First off Bruce, this is not “Paradise-on-the-Deschutes,” this is Berkeley-on-the-Deschutes.
You also state, “My strong hunch is that if the tracks ran across the Westside instead of the Eastside, the city would have applied for – and gotten – a “quiet zone” designation years ago.”
Not so, because we would be living on the eastside and you would be living on the westside.
So if the trains are too loud, either close your windows or turn on your TV to Fox News. You can enjoy O’Reilly and Hannity repeats all night long.
“guest” is right. we dont take sadistic pleasure in blowing the whistle. It is a rule and a federal law. The stupidity of some motorists I have seen from the cab at road crossings is beyond belief.
“we dont take sadistic pleasure in blowing the whistle. It is a rule and a federal law.”
I understand that. I was just kidding.
Still, I’m sure each engineer has his own individual “style” of horn-blowing, shall we say, and some may blow longer “notes” than others.
“First off Bruce, this is not “Paradise-on-the-Deschutes,” this is Berkeley-on-the-Deschutes.”
You don’t know Berkley very well, do you? This place is more like Orange County-on-the-Deschutes.
“Not so, because we would be living on the eastside and you would be living on the westside.”
Believe it or not, when we moved here 24 years ago the westside (except for the Drake Park neighborhood and Awbrey Butte, which had just started being developed) was considered the less desirable part of town because the noisy, smelly mills were there. But then the mills closed and enterprising realtors decided to market run-down old mill workers’ shacks as “charming Craftsman cottages.”
As small as Bend was (and small even now), I’m somewhat surprised there was (and is) such a thing as an east side/west side mentality. I wonder if longtime residents think in those terms. Perhaps that is part of the culture brought in by us bigger city transplants (unfortunately).
To Weekly Reader: Since you are an engineer, I have noticed that the horn blowing pattern appears to always be two longer blasts, one short burst, and then one final longer blast. I have heard this pattern at various times of the day and on different days as well. Is that the “horn” protocol for traffic crossings and/or are there other patterns for other situations?
HBM Critic: 2 longs, 1 short, and 1 long is the rule and the law mandated by the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) at all street crossings. And yes, there are other patterns for other situations. Oh yeah, we have the right of way at all crossings too.