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

["Paul S. Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

Boy the big sports networks are a bunch of BS crybabies...when the Yankees
play in Seattle the announcers o radio and TV enjoy the train horn and the
accompanying rumbling train.....they never complain about the sound as
interfering with their announcing-even the blabbermouths on the radio
side....

What they do find annoying (and if you go to a big league park you know
about this) is the prerecorded very loud rock music and sound effects that
have mostly replaced the organ players....that is so so so loud (and I like
rock-maybe not the standard same old songs they play-but it is way too loud
and distorted and totally out of context at the game.....that is far far
louder than any outside air horn could possibly be

Paul
- -----Original Message-----
From: Jim Dent <james.dent_@_itochu.com>
To: RSHS List <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
Date: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 2:00 PM
Subject: (rshsdepot) Tonight's All-Star Game - Trains Horn In


>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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