I have been rather quiet for the past few months on the issue of trains and how they impact Parry Sound. I don’t expect that will change for the foreseeable future. The railways are what they are, and they do whatever they want. I’m not ready to get over it, but I currently don’t have much to offer.
But, good news for those of you who do follow trains and are interested in their impact on local communities, Trainjane is back again at railandreason.com. This is a blog site that offers considerable information and insight on issues concerning the railways in Canada. They have been away for the last two years but have just announced their return. I highly recommend the site as a source of national information regarding rail activity.
In one of their first posts since returning they have provided a link to the document:
Guidelines for New Development in Proximity to Railway Operations
It’s an interesting read that highlights the more important considerations for new construction along railway corridors. Parry Sound certainly needs to understand and take note of the report’s recommendations.
No comments
December 12, 2016 at 9:44 am
Talking to people around, there seems to be three major complaints about trains:
1. Environmental and safety concerns re the transporting of toxic or volatile substances.
2. Traffic concerns, i.e. long trains blocking crossings for long periods
3. Noise concerns.
Of those, I think the first is a major concern, but I don’t have many thoughts on it.
The second is, to my mind, not so big a concern. You don’t get stuck waiting for a train that often, and even the long ones usually don’t take more than a few minutes of your time. If five minutes makes or breaks your schedule, then your schedule was already broken, and what you have is a time management problem, not a train problem! Really, most of us could stand to slow down a bit anyway.
The third though is where I get a bee in my bonnet! The noise comes from two sources, the relentless horn blowing, and the screech of the wheels. The horn blowing is just asinine. Ostensibly brought in for safety reasons, it’s a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease! How many people have actually been saved from certain death at a crossing because of the warning horn? I suspect very little. Yet over all how much of a hit has everyone’s quality of life taken from being woken up three times a night? Just google the effects of sleep deprivation to see the types of damage these horns have wrought. Tired humans are more likely to make mistakes, more likely to committ crimes, more likely to suicide, more likely to committ a range of immoral acts. I submit that the warning horns have hurt society much more than they’ve helped. Some municipalities have gone through the process redtape mess required to get the horns stopped, we simply need a government willing to do that on a national level. Maybe mitigate the political cost of that by simply making the horns “opt-in” , i.e. make the default setting “no horns” , and leave the option that if the municipality is really concerned about safety, they can easily opt in.
The second part of the noise problem is the loud screeching. I’m told by engineers that this is due to the discrepancy in wheel rotations from one side to the other as the train goes around any kind of curve: the axels are solid one piece, so both wheels will always turn together. As the train goes around a curve, the inner wheel – which is travelling on a smaller arc – travels less distance, while the outer wheel must travel a bigger arc. The outer wheel must therefore complete more rotations in the same time period, i.e. it must turn faster. Since they both turn together, the result is the inner wheel spinning on the track, thus causing the scraping screech sound we love. I’m told this could be easily solved by making both wheels independent, so that they could each turn at their own speed. They could easily build train cars like that, but they would cost more, and train companies would object I’m sure to the tremendous cost of replacing their fleets. I think this could be done though simply by legislating a gradual phase in: pass a law that says that in 5 years all new cars will have to have independent wheels. That gives them time to get ready. Then allow them to grandfather in old cars for a maximum period – say ten years. That gives them time to replace their fleets gradually, any many of those old cars would have been due for replacement anyway.
Bottom line, something could be done about the noise if there was the political will.
December 14, 2016 at 8:03 pm
Ryan, I agree with your points.
There are crossing signals available that direct a sound in the direction of the road traffic, not the whole neighbourhood. This avoids the need for on-engine air horns. Even the engine air horns could be better directed to a smaller radius than an apparent 180 degree sweep.
I agree with the squeal of the wheels being the biggest issue. The line behind our house curves and the squeal is, at times, unbelievable. Surprisingly it’s only about 1 in 3 cars that squeal to the point of pain, so it seems to be more than a design issue. There are supposed to be greasers on the curves that apply lubricant to minimize friction and the noise. But they only work if the greasers are regularly replenished. Which I understand they aren’t. On our stretch of line there is an uphill grade and the railways seemingly don’t want anything interfering with engine to rail contact and a resulting loss of traction.