Stationary horns could reduce train noise for some, San Clemente learns

The operator of a wayside horn turns it toward the ocean at San Clemente's Dije Court crossing to test how loud it sounds from various vantage points. Tests were done from 70 to 92 decibels. FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

How does it work?

Wayside horns are mounted on poles at the crossing and emit a louder, longer and more consistent alarm than a conventional train horn, though they are designed to sound like a train horn.

When a train activates the crossing signal system a quarter-mile from a crossing, the wayside horn is activated. The horn sounds until the train reaches the crossing, providing 25 to 30 seconds of warning.

A horn confirmation signal is activated if the speaker in the horn detects that the alarm is at the required decibel level (minimum of 92, maximum of 110). As long as the engineer of the approaching locomotive can see the horn confirmation signal, he or she will not be required to sound the train horn unless he detects an emergency.

The wayside horn directs its sound right toward motorists and pedestrians on the roadway. Thus it is estimated that noise from wayside horns affects less than 10 percent of the area affected by a conventional locomotive horn.

Source: Hanson-Wilson Inc., an engineering firm serving the railroad industry

Why the fuss?

Complaints about train horns were rare until the city built a coastal trail that added five pedestrian surface crossings.

The trail was designed to channel pedestrians to safe, signalized crossings, ending decades of beachgoers randomly crossing the tracks.

The trail coincided with a 2006 federal rule requiring trains to blow the horn at all crossings, even if no one is there.

As new crossings opened along the trail, horns became nearly incessant, with more than 50 trains a day hitting the horn at all crossings.

State regulators will visit San Clemente in coming weeks to tour the coast and discuss solutions.

The city is spending $40,000 to test the feasibility of putting as many as six crossings underground.

Wayside horns are another option.

Safety improvementscould lead to the California Public Utilities Commission declaring a "Safety/Quiet Zone" for San Clemente.

In a Quiet Zone, trains don't have to routinely sound the horn at every crossing.

What's next?

Sept. 22: The City Council invites residents to a 6 p.m. hearing at City Hall, 100 Avenida Presidio.

Why: Collect opinions on whether the city should close the El Portal surface rail crossing.

It wouldmeanone less crossing where trains have to blow the horn on approach.

Beach access still would be available under a train trestle just to the south and at a signalized surface crossing at Dije Court to the north.

Questions: Call City Hall at 949-361-8200.

Some San Clemente residents are feeling better this week in their quest for relief from round-the-clock train horns over a 2½-mile stretch of coastal railroad track.

The city spent $5,000 Thursday to find out what it might sound like if the city installed a loudspeaker at nine rail crossings, broadcasting a recording of a train horn. When a train activates the crossing signal system (about a quarter-mile from the crossing), the recording would sound instead of the approaching train activating its horn.

The stationary "wayside" horn is designed to localize the noise at a crossing. The city tested one at three locations Thursday, broadcasting from 70 to 92 decibels at each one.

Reactions varied. Individuals in different areas described it as a dramatic improvement, a slight improvement or even potentially worse than what people are subjected to today.

Wayside horns might be a solution at some locations and not others, officials said, and a win/win is possible if San Clemente can persuade the California Public Utilities Commission to allow turning down the volume.

"The mandate is 92," said Gary Chronister, leader of a local group called QUIET, "but that's based on vehicular crossings. We're in a different situation with pedestrian crossings. Maybe there's some leeway."

Councilman Wayne Eggleston, a member of a San Clemente task force working with state and federal regulators to improve safety and reduce train noise, said he thinks San Clemente can make a good case for turning down the sound. The 92-decibel requirement is designed to allow the sound to pierce a vehicle that has its windows rolled up and the radio blasting, Eggleston said. In San Clemente, seven of the nine crossings are pedestrian-only, and people there don't need such high volume on a wayside horn.

Thursday's tests at 70 decibels seemed plenty loud, observers agreed.

"I haven't been this excited since I got my driver's license," said Kirk Steele, whose home south of T-Street Beach is on a coastal bluff. From his home, the wayside horn was dramatically quieter.

"I was hanging over the side, trying to listen," he said. "Gary was calling me as they were sounding the horn and I said, 'I can't hear it!'"

Chronister used a decibel reader at his blufftop home and said a test at 72 decibels at the Lasuen Beach crossing was something he could live with.

Franz Schultz, whose blufftop home overlooks the Dije Court crossing, didn't notice much difference during a test there. "They're better than the regular horns, but no horns would be better," Schulte said. "An underpass there would be far better."

Rob Robbins observed the Dije Court test and suggested closing both the Dije Court and El Portal surface crossings. That would leave pedestrians with a beach access under a nearby trestle.

"I live at Mariposa, where they put (a) new undercrossing," Robbins said, "and a lot of the trains still blow their horn anyway because it's 1,300 feet to the next crossing on either side. So it didn't do any good as far as the horns go."

Beth Dudas, whose home is at track level, 35 feet from the rails, gets horn blasts from trains going both ways as they approach crossings on each side of her. "I love the wayside horns," she said. "They will not be honking in front of my house at all."

Rick Anderson, who lives across from the city pier, said a wayside horn there would only guarantee continual blasts at 92 decibels.

"We're going to hear that - every train, every time," he said. "Sometimes now, Metrolink and Amtrak have been more courteous … just tap or toot. I'd rather have them continue what they're doing right now than get 100 percent of 92 every time. I think it would be a bigger problem."

Chronister said getting wayside horns at lower volume is worth pursuing. Ultimately he likes a "Quiet Zone" (a waiver of a federal requirement that trains blow their horns) or underpasses, he said, but wayside horns at $75,000 to $80,000 are much less costly than building underpasses.

"It's a good compromise," Chronister said. "It looks like it can work for the people on the bluff and the people on the trail if we can lower the decibels."

Contact the writer: or 949-492-5127

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