(rshsdepot) Tonight's All-Star Game - Trains Horn In

["Jim Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

Trains to horn in on the big game

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter

Whatever romantic notions you might hold about the far-off sound of a train
horn can be easily dashed for the nominal fee of a ticket in the cheap seats
at Safeco Field, where at least once a game your teeth will be rattled
courtesy of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.

Well, maybe that fee won't be so nominal, at least not today.

But All-Stars or not, the trains will keep a rollin' and the train horns
will keep a blowin', causing the ESPN and Fox Network sports heads to
flinch, stop their easy patter and strain their voices to holler over the
clacking freight trains that run on the tracks just a few feet east of the
stadium.

As many as 70 freight trains a day use those tracks, part of the railroad's
main line that runs from Seattle through Portland to Chicago. And every one
of those trains must traverse Royal Brougham Avenue, the busy thoroughfare
on the north side of Safeco Field that is crowded with fans before and after
games.

While there are gates, warning bells and flashing lights, BNSF and the city
decided that trains must also sound a warning whistle as they approach the
crossing. That's the blast that shakes the seats out in center field and
echoes around the 47,000-seat stadium.

According to Gus Melonas, the railroad's spokesman in Seattle, fans have
embraced the horns and train noise as part of the Safeco ambience. The
short-lived talk of suspending the horns for All-Star weekend, sought by the
Mariners, was met with overwhelming opposition, he said.

As recently as last week, Melonas said, ESPN and Fox were still trying to
have the horns silenced - although they were also asking him for information
about the trains so they could explain the racket to their viewers.

He said the railway would have accommodated the networks and stopped the
horns, but the city wasn't willing to suspend its requirement that trains
sound a warning as they approach the Royal Brougham crossing.

Fans, Melonas said, find the frequent blasts "part of the ballpark
atmosphere" and perhaps a fitting herald of the Mariners' juggernaut.

Kids love trains, he added, and a lot of baseball fans are kids at heart, so
the two have made for a perfect pairing - the blast off the bat and the
receding blast from a passing train go together, ball-in-glove.

It's just a myth, however, that pro-Mariners engineers might be timing their
blasts to put an exclamation point on a good play or chump the swing of an
opposing batter.

In fact, the sequence of horn blasts from an approaching train is dictated
by the type of crossing. Public crossings, Melonas explained, get two long
blasts, a short blast, and another long blast. Law requires the sequence to
begin a quarter-mile from the crossing and be repeated until the engine of
the train occupies the intersection.

In older engines, the engineer pulls a handle to blow the horn, but must
still follow the sequence. The handle allows the engineer, Melonas said, to
"feather" the sound with slight volume adjustments.

Most of the trains that rumble by Safeco are automated, however, and the
engineer - regardless of his fan leanings - simply pushes a button to begin
the sequence ... and then can turn back to his sports page.

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