Freelancing.....


The only law of that type that I am aware of was the State of Iowa required interurbans to install steam engine type bells (this in the pre-diesel era). Otherwise it was pretty much up to the individual railroad. Of course, now days, you are getting more and more (in my opinion, stupid) municipalities mandating NO horns or bells, under the guise of noise pollution control, safety be damned.
 
AmericaWestLines said:
Only numbers that i have seen show a decrease in deaths. The rules have changed, new quiet zones are not like the old city bans.
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Very true, at least in Tulsa. It's the only quiet zone I'm familiar with, but all the grade crossings had to be upgraded so that vehicles can't go around the gates (double gates dropping from both sides, I assume. I've never actually paid attention to those particular crossings; only read about it when it was being implemented) and things like that before they could operate without warning horns. It keeps the safety at least at a level if not actually increasing it, because I've certainly never seen a horn stop people from driving around single gates.
 
Got my Track Planning for Realistic Operation, the other day, very interesting book!

I quite like the looks of this engine terminal...

Engine terminal.jpg

...maybe a wee change here and there. ;):D
 
There don't appear to be any specified horn sounds here and certainly not for grade (level) crossings. They can vary from a single or couple of blasts or as little as a perfunctory "Parp". The crossing warnings for traffic to are an odd sound too, no bells, just a rather strange electronic sort of high pitched "warble" i.e. not singular sound but fluctuating. The most odd part of it is that it's not loud, but it is very penetrating and carries quite a long distance.

You'll hear it on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CemryLjcADc
 
I've actually been considering a second railroad company on my layout and I'm looking in three directions-

1. Does/did the Milwaukee have subsidiaries? (Ex. The Rutland RR did not have subsidiaries.)

2. Are there defunct lines nearby or that were predecessors to the Milwaukee? (Ex. The White River RR was nearby and was very unsuccessful.)

3. What geographic features are nearby that would be plausible railroad names? (Ex. I'm considering Otter Creek RR)

I hope that's food for thought for you.
 
Railrunner130 said:
2. Are there defunct lines nearby or that were predecessors to the Milwaukee?
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Predecessors (in whole or as parts) I'll leave the research as to whether they were "nearby" to someone else:
Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad
Bellingham & Northern Railway
Bellevue & Cascade Railroad (narrow gauge)
Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway
Chicago, Milwaukee & Gary Railway
Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway
Chicago & Pacific Railroad
Chicago-Buena Park
Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee
Chicago Rapid Transit
Dakota Southern
Dubuque Southwestern
Illinois, Iowa & Minnesota
La Crosse & Milwaukee Rail Road
La Crosse & Southeastern
Marinette, Tomahawk & Western Railway
Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad
Milwaukee and Waukesha Railroad
Montana Railroad
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway
Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien Railway
Milwaukee & Northern Railroad
Puget Sound & Willapa Harbor Railway
Racine & Mississippi Railroad
Sioux City & Dakota
Sioux City & Pembina
Seattle, Port Angeles & Western Railway
Tacoma Eastern Railroad
Three Forks-Salesville and Menard
Western Union Railroad
White Sulphur Springs and Yellowstone Park Railway


3. What geographic features are nearby that would be plausible railroad names?
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I'm partial to "bitterroot"
 
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Not wanting to deviate from the topic at hand but do you guys remember that (moronic mob) some where in upstate NY who had trains banned from sounding their horns? True story, evidently a train sounding it's horn for a nearby crossing was disrupting the local church and (get this) the main woman's telephone calls and her husbands playing of an instrument.

What is genuinely idiotic is that the town, county or whoever it was actually listened and had the horns banned. I guess up there, religion, playing an instrument and not having your phone calls interrupted is more important than logic, common sense and peoples safety.

I live spitting distance from a rail line and sure, the first month or so the trains were annoying - now, I don't even hear em. Oh did I also mention that the trains were there LONG before I was ;)

Okay, as for the layout plan - it looks complicated to me but interesting none the less.
 
I can believe it Tony. Some time I wonder what the world is coming to. A few years back, greenies wanted to ban BNSF coal trains from using the main line coming through Bozeman because they were worried about the possibility of coal dust being let into the air by passing trains. REALLY. That went no where.
 
wombat457 said:
Not wanting to deviate from the topic at hand but do you guys remember that (moronic mob) some where in upstate NY who had trains banned from sounding their horns? True story, evidently a train sounding it's horn for a nearby crossing was disrupting the local church and (get this) the main woman's telephone calls and her husbands playing of an instrument.

What is genuinely idiotic is that the town, county or whoever it was actually listened and had the horns banned. I guess up there, religion, playing an instrument and not having your phone calls interrupted is more important than logic, common sense and peoples safety.

I live spitting distance from a rail line and sure, the first month or so the trains were annoying - now, I don't even hear em. Oh did I also mention that the trains were there LONG before I was ;)

Okay, as for the layout plan - it looks complicated to me but interesting none the less.
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I know we all love the sound of train horns, and I too lived very near a mainline and soon was immune to the noise. But again I'll state that horns have never prevented people from being stupid, going around crossing gates, ignoring flashing lights AND horns, and still causing all sorts of collisions. If the crossings are upgraded so that people CAN'T go around the gates to cause collisions AND people get a little peace and quiet, where's the harm? I could argue that grade crossing signal/barrier improvements that I understand are part of quiet zones would actually improve safety, not reduce it. I'm not necessarily against the positive Darwinism of removing people from the world who are too idiotic to pay attention to the horns, but it also kinda makes a mess for the railroads to clean up.

Just my two cents. And I also think the layout plan looks interesting. Considering how damn complicated and convoluted my own is, I won't even comment on the "complicated" aspect ;)
 
G'day Tony...Did you see the case in Florida , I think it was where a lady texting on a mobile phone in a "No Train Horn " zone walked straight out in front of an AMTRAK train as hard as that is to believe.badly hurt thankfully not killed .I bet even the phone wouldn't have coped over that and there were no pedestrian gates either..just as bad... Apologies for insulting mobile phone texters but ....GET WITH THE PROGRAM...I hate even getting texts let alone sending them but we have to be able to for work...Cheers Rod..
 
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Right-o, Wombat457, I also had the pleasure of living near (very)two double lines that cross in mid-Michigan here, I will be putting that feature on my layout. At first it is beyond annoying but too true you just don't hear it after a while. Lived near a small race track(Spartan Speedway, the track the cows call home!) LOL and every year some new homeowner would float a petition to close them and were always told the track was there first by most all of the residents, that was 25 years ago and it's still going strong, my niece and her husband race there every summer!

On trains, does it matter if you call your lines a name used by an actual company? Can you get flak for making up a name and using it online if it too closely resembles an actual RR? Seriously in this environment we are in (litigious) is it something to consider or is fun not allowed anymore? I don't know all the names of all the companies and don't want no trouble. Naming a line is something I feel brings them to life.

-"I'm 'challenged' and need all the help I can get"-
 
As for using the name of an actual railroad, I doubt if you would catch any flak...unless you are trying to make a profit on some product. For example, at one time the Union Pacific tried to force a model manufacturer to pay a royalty on every piece of rolling stock the hobby manufacturer produced. I can't recall who it was, maybe MTI...but they sued UP. Eventually, UP apparently decided permitting use of their name and logos was worth more in advertising and publicitiy than what they would make if they either forced a royalty or put the hobby maker out of business. If you look closely at model makers that make UP, C&NW, and other subsidiaries of UP, and also BNSF, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and C.B.&Q, etc., they have a little asterisk that points to a tiny "Licensed from UP" or whatever.
 
trailrider said:
As for using the name of an actual railroad, I doubt if you would catch any flak...unless you are trying to make a profit on some product. For example, at one time the Union Pacific tried to force a model manufacturer to pay a royalty on every piece of rolling stock the hobby manufacturer produced. I can't recall who it was, maybe MTI...but they sued UP. Eventually, UP apparently decided permitting use of their name and logos was worth more in advertising and publicitiy than what they would make if they either forced a royalty or put the hobby maker out of business. If you look closely at model makers that make UP, C&NW, and other subsidiaries of UP, and also BNSF, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and C.B.&Q, etc., they have a little asterisk that points to a tiny "Licensed from UP" or whatever.
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Cool, thanks for the info, ya just never know now-a days.
 
Aw jeez my niece got dumped by her boyfriend cause he decided he was gay and she took a handful of pills and is in Traverse City on life support right now. What n the heck is the deal with this s#^t everybody gotta "play for the other team" nowdays??? NOBODY is happy with WHO and WHAT they are??? Sorry guys I know this is not train related but I got nowhere and nobody to tell talk to about this just had to get it out.
 
That is totally understandable and no apology is necessary. Sometimes this is the only place to talk about something like this, esp when there aren't any warm bodies around. I know that I'm happy with whom I'm with, otherwise I've wasted the last 42 yrs together with MOH come Sept 1. We have 2 beautiful kids, who are on their own now, and a beautiful, headstrong, stubborn, mischievous, highly intelligent, Grandson, who calls me GOP.
 
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