Show us your... railroads and GLR

[Henry Midfields]

Hey, great work on the video!

Good points:
-Realistic!
-Great use of the railway textures, smooth curves, station props, and fences 

Things I wouldn't mind not having:
-Too much use of the train horn. Especially right at the start and throughout the journey between the from the first to the end. Or do real Amtrak trains use that much horn-beeping?

[mike3775]

Things I wouldn't mind not having:
-Too much use of the train horn. Especially right at the start and throughout the journey between the from the first to the end. Or do real Amtrak trains use that much horn-beeping?

Thats normal.  They have to sound the horn

[Andreas]

Well, apparently, it didn't help that much, since you crashed into several cars at the diagonal avenue crossing right at the beginning. Other than that, nice journey.

[io_bg]

Thats normal.  They have to sound the horn

I wouldn't want to live next to the train tracks then

[Andreas]

Me neither. But I guess that trains are so rare in the US that people would simply overlook them if they wouldn't blow their horn all the time.

[MandelSoft]

I wouldn't want to live next to the train tracks then

Me neither. But I guess that trains are so rare in the US that people would simply overlook them if they wouldn't blow their horn all the time.

That's why I aviod building houses and offices right next to a railway 

EDIT: 1100th post!

[kuehmary]

We have trains that go through the middle of the city (I live in the US). We have a bit of industrial that touches the rail line but mainly just commercial. I think that the only residential that sits next to it is for about three blocks and that is filled with apartment complexes but no houses. The rail is fenced on both sides with gravel between the rail and the fence. The commercial is shopping centers, and small offices. As far I can recall, the train hardly ever blows its horn. The only loud noise you hear is from the railroad crossings.

[mike3775]

I wouldn't want to live next to the train tracks then

Actually believe it or not, people tend to get used to it

I once lived in an apartment that was right on a rail line and after a week of living there, I actually started not hearing the train horn at all

There were times when I knew a train was going by because the glass of water on the table was shaking, but I never heard the horn

[feliwi]

@all: Nice railways

here are some of mine:
first of all, Krung Thanbu Central station:


railroad track passing by sqatters:

[tag_one]

Looks great Feliwi

[DFire870]

Me neither. But I guess that trains are so rare in the US that people would simply overlook them if they wouldn't blow their horn all the time.

Well, the trains are only required to blow their horn at certain times, like at certain at-grade crossings. And actually, here in Austin they installed new crossing gates so that the freight trains that are now running at night on a certain track don't have to blow their horn as much (they're running at night now that we have a new commuter rail system).

-- John

[Andreas]

In Germany, trains have to blow the horn at crossings without gates, when the gates are malfunctioning somehow, and of course if the train driver sees someone who is on the tracks. But that's only one or two short blows, not the minute-long horn blowing like I often hear in those kinds of videos.

[mike3775]

more and more area's are trying to get designated "quiet zones", where trains cannot blow the horns from 10pm to 6am.  But in order to get that status, cities/towns must pay part of the costs associated with upgrading the crossing to dual gates, and other safety measures required.

Its very costly, which is why it takes so long to get the "quiet zone" status

[The_Hutt]

more and more area's are trying to get designated "quiet zones", where trains cannot blow the horns from 10pm to 6am.  But in order to get that status, cities/towns must pay part of the costs associated with upgrading the crossing to dual gates, and other safety measures required.

Its very costly, which is why it takes so long to get the "quiet zone" status

It's actually possible to get full quiet zone status, where horns are never used without extreme circumstances (i.e. someone lounging on the railroad tracks). Case in point - there are railroad tracks about two blocks from my (former) high school. It is a considerably busy line, as light rail trains go by in each direction every 15 minutes, and there are an average of about 24 freight trains daily. You can't hear light rail horns since they're not "real", but the freight trains had just ear-shatteringly loud horns. We'd get ten or twelve or so during the school day and it did get disruptive at times. Eventually the city decided to make that entire stretch of rail through town a quiet zone, so they negotiated with the railroad, Union Pacific, and while I don't remember how it was done, eventually a no-horn zone was established. They're still relatively rare, though.

[mike3775]

Railroad companies would love to have quiet zones established everywhere.  Why?  Because the cities/towns pay for the upgrades that are required to get them, so they would get free equipment.

I lived in a town that paid over $6 million to establish a quiet zone.  Why so much?  They paid to build bridges on every crossing in town limits on that rail line(5 bridges).  By doing so, the rail company agreed not to blow the horns from 9pm to 6 am.  The city also paid to install 7 ft high chain link fence along the rails on both sides of the line as well, to prevent people from walking across the tracks.

The railroad had wanted to build those bridges because they were purchasing another rail line, but once they found out that the city was willing to foot the bill, they were all for it

[Nardo69]

Well, from what I am hearing hornblowing seems to be a rather effective tactic to get your railway infrastructure modernized ... I am pretty sure that the speed of the trains increased not only a little bit after the level crossings were removed.

I like to tell the story about that level crossing Bingen or Bingerbrück in the lovely Rhine valley that was replaced before WWII as one of the first level crossing due to capacity reasons. Its average close time was more than 20 hrs - per day!

Freight trains however are a noise problem in Germany, too. While trains in the USA are longer and heavier than in Europe (main reason is the old connection standard that allows maximum 4000 metric tons in flat terrain!) European freight trains are way faster than americans. You can see that on the car type: almost every freight car now is classified "s" (maximum speed 100km/h) or "ss" (maximum speed 120km/h, increased load weight for 100km/h) while AFAIK freight train speed on most lines in America is far below 80 km/h.

This high speed together with old brakes cause a lot of noise with peak levels high above 110 db(A). However on most main railway lines noise walls are missing and don't need to be installed.

Please note that these speeds are only possible because either level crossings have been closed / replaced by bridges and underpathes or are gated - no need to blow the horn yet a serious noise immission problem ...

[Henry Midfields]

Thats normal.  They have to sound the horn

Oh, okay. Cause even sounding the train horn itself in Japan is rare. It's not that common in Melbourne, Australia (where I currently live) either.

[mike3775]

here they have to sound the horn at all ground level crossings.  There is a set pattern they have to follow, it is annoying, but the only way to get rid of them at night, is to go with a quiet zone designation, but like was mentioned early, it is expensive to do so.

[Pat]

Me neither. But I guess that trains are so rare in the US that people would simply overlook them if they wouldn't blow their horn all the time.

ehh not to rare if you live in a bigger city IE Chicago, IL where Amtrak is used as a major commuter train between the city and the burbs...  But other wise you would be right there Andreas lol

[Nexis4Jersey]

Heres some of my Railyards










~Corey