(totally OT for home repair) train horn codes

[Stormin Mormon]

Long, long, short, long. Why do trains blow a morse code letter Q?

[Bob_Villa]

"Approaching public grade crossing". Remember Google is your friend! Duh!

[Stormin Mormon]

Thanks, totally interesting.

[philoÂÂ]

Somewhere around 1975 I picked up a hitch-hiker who was the very last of the breed. He had been a telegrapher for the rail-road.

I feel like it must have been a million years ago. Telegraphers and hitch-hikers are such a thing of the past.

Since I am an amateur radio operator I was quite interested. I know Morse code. The thing is, the RR telegraphers used American Morse.

Most common is International Morse code

[gfretwell]

The train here only uses a short blast and the neighbors bitch about that. After bedtime they don't sound the horn at all. This line has a very low speed limit (~15) so you have plenty of time to see the train coming.

[krw]

We had a fairly active rail crossing behind our house. The blasts varied a lot (by engineer, we supposed). There were no pattern to their blasts but there were definite "signatures". One would lay on it for the entire way between two crossings; very annoying at 2:00AM.