Riding the Amtrak 314 Missouri River Runner: Jefferson City to St. Louis

[DutchElevatorChannel]

Asking myself, why do trains over there sound the horn on every railroadcrossing??? Over here that's not allowed because it can disturb people living around. Trains here are only allowed to sound horns if there's a real reason for it, like someone trying to cross tracks in front of the train or other kinds of dangerous situations. Very nice video by the way;)

[TheElevatorChannel]

@DutchElevatorChannel To be honest, I really don't know. We have a lot of idiots that try to beat trains across the crossings, and I guess the government thinks the sound of an oncoming train horn might discourage it. From my experience, you can't even hear the horn from the train coming very well while you are in a car anyway. In my opinion, it should only be used when needed (someone on the tracks as the train approaches) and at crossings without gates or warning lights.

[DutchElevatorChannel]

@TheElevatorChannel I agree, The Netherlands were I live almost only have railroad crossing with bells, lights and gates. But maybe a difference could be the time between bells begin to ring untill a train really approach. Over here it takes like half a minute so that's pretty fast. In this 30 seconds bells begin to ring and a few seconds later gates are closing. So it's about 10 or 15 seconds after gates are closed a train already passing by. Maybe it takes a lot longer over there?

[LIRR175]

@TheElevatorChannel Because many, many crossings don't have gates or warning lights.

And it appears that car-train crashes are increasing in frequency and severity.

[TheElevatorChannel]

@LIRR175 But what about the many, many crossings that DO have them?  I really doubt the sound of an oncoming train horn is going to stop idiots from being idiots.

Of course, if the engineer sees a car on the tracks, he should blow the horn as much as possible!

[LIRR175]

01:18 Announcements like this are PROHIBITED by the Amtrak service manual:

"Announcements that advise customers to wait until all tickets have been collected before visiting Food Service Cars are prohibited."

Page 7-26

[TheElevatorChannel]

@LIRR175 Very interesting. I've heard that announcement on a few other trips as well. Also, I noticed the intercom system in the Horizon cars was living up to its WONDERFUL reputation!

[Streetcar1743]

You ought to get Pentrex to film a cab ride on this line.