*** NOTE THE PRIOR POSTS WERE MADE 1-2 YEARS OR MORE PRIOR ***
As a Davis resident who has lived across the street from the railroad tracks on H Street for 20 years, I can speak from experience.
I've always loved the train coming through town and delivering beets to the former cannery and bringing loads of fresh cut timber down from Oregon. If it wasn't for the trains, Davis would probably not have existed or grown. So the fact is that I am not against the train, and I recognize that the train was here before my house was built.
The difference is that the equipment has changed drastically over the years. I recently had a discussion with the railroad company and the facts are that the trains were upgraded to newer louder horns. I think the horns are now designed to generate up to 95 dB which is 100 times louder than they were previously. That is very loud if you live by the tracks, so loud that it has severely affected the quality of life of those living by the tracks. I'm sure there is a safety reason for the increase in horn loudness, however in this stretch of the rail corridor, I cannot find any justification for the increase in sound levels.
As stated in Section 7 of the CCJA
http://city-managers-office.cityofdavis.org/Media/Default/Documents/PDF/CMO/Depot-Crossing/protest-ccjpa.pdf Trains must sound their horn if "a trespasser is seen closely approaching" I can attest that the horn is used even if no person is even remotely seen closely approaching.
This brings up the human interpretation of the regulations and most likely the reason for the complaints; ie the freedom that is given to the train engineer to interpret the conditions. It is my opinion that certain train engineers use the horn much like a small child bangs on a piano: to draw attention to themselves. At 6AM the engineer who commutes from Woodland using the locomotive blasts the students living in the apartment buildings with a long loud wakeup call. In the evening on the commute back home, sometimes at 10PM or later, the railroad operators says"goodnight" with a long drawn out blast of his horn again. These blasts last for 30 to 45 seconds and cannot be ignored. Note that all of the crossings in town are protected by advance warning bells, red flashing lights and gates that close down automatically before the train approaches. the horn is an additional warning signal, that I believe is used excessively.
So the issue is most likely one of over zealous or inappropriate use of the horns rather than the existence of the train tracks in town.
I can see how some people might think that, though, since the pattern at the crossing IS kind of musical. When you have multiple crossings in an area, that pattern is repeated, hence "song".
