A 1895 rule book for the two foot gauge Wiscasset & Quebec lists the whistle signal for public crossings as two longs and two shorts. A 1929 Great Northern rule book also lists the highway crossing signal to be two longs and two shorts to be repeated until the crossing was reached. When were the signal rules changed to two longs, a short and a long? Also now-days it seems most engineers just blow the horn any way they please for crossings. When was the use of a specific signal no longer required?

Mike -

I believe that the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the East Broad Top, also used two longs and two shorts as the rule for public crossing whistle signals. The Pennsy is long gone, but I wonder if the EBT still has that particular whistle signal stilll in their rule book.

Les

I recall a discussion (somewhere) some years ago about the grade crossing signal. The early rule was two longs and two shorts. This was changed to two longs, a short and a final long.

The reason for the change to the final long was to insure that the long was being blown when entering the grade crossing. The idea being that there could be no dispute that the whistle was being sounded at the grade crossing.

This is probably the reason that some of the railroads allow the signal to be repeated until the road is crossed.

I am scanning older official guides onto CDs. Although I can not recall which year it was, but there was a large chart folded into one of the OGs showing the whistle signals used for different meanings. I think it was in the 1870's and of the 60-odd railroads shown, NONE used two longs, a short, and a long for grade crossing.
Also, I noticed that some railroads used two shorts for forward and three for reverse while others used three shorts for forward and two for reverse.
A wild chart.
At the time, the Roman Numeral pages in the Official Guide also had the proceedings of an annual meeting of some sort for railroad officials. They were commenting on the need for a consistent definition for railroad whistle signals. I seem to recall that it was prior to the call for Standardized time zones for railroads.
Doug vV

I really can't comment on the history of whistle signals, but can about current practice, since the question was raised. The latest FRA rule on whistle signals is that for a grade crossing sequence, an engineer should make a good faith effort to blow the horn for not less than 15 seconds, nor more than 20, ending when the lead unit fouls the crossing. Also, trains traveling more than 60 mph (it might be 50, I rarely deal with trains faster than 50 so I'd need to look it up) must not start blowing more than 1/4 mi. before the crossing, even if that means the whistle sequence takes less than 15 seconds. Whistle posts are supposed to be placed 1/4 mi. from the crossing.

Now, I deal with a lot of territory where there are NO whistle posts (most of the CSX Philadelphia sub does not have whistle posts), so it's often an educated guess, especially if you're running at an odd speed due to either a speed restriction or can't make track speed due to tonnage. My personal rule is that I'd rather end up blowing a 21 second sequence than a 14 second sequence, and nobody has said boo to me about that. I've seen a Road Foreman who doesn't run much blow 10 second sequences on a train I was on. It really probably only becomes an issue in two instances; first, if management is out to get someone (yes, it does happen, one of my co-workers gets banner tested every couple of weeks - because he is outspoken - and I hardly ever do); second, if there is an accident where the length of the whistle sequence becomes a legal issue.

Hope this helps.

Some years ago, I investigated a grade crossing accident at a shortline which shall remain nameless. The train had approached the crossing in broad daylight, blowing the standard 14L signal, and occupied it. An automobile thereupon struck the car behind the engine, bending up the corner stirrup and damaging the door track. The auto was a write-off.

The driver's lawyer tried to insist that the train should have begun blowing its horn at the whistle post, which was half a mile from the crossing. (The trains must have travelled a lot faster back in the day.) Anyway, I made the case to the judge that it was silly for the train to begin sounding its warning a half mile from the crossing, since at the present day track speed of 10 mph, it took three minutes to cover half a mile.

The judge agreed with me, and he observed that if we did blow for three minutes every time we crossed that road, we would quickly alienate our neighbors. Score one for logic and good sense in the judiciary!

G.W. -

When the wife and I rode the Ohio Central out of Sugar Creek a few years ago, I noticed that when CP 4-6-2 #1293 came to one of these old whistle posts, the engineer gave a very short "toot". Then when the actual road crossing came up, at the slower tourist train speed of today, the crew laid on the usual two longs, a short and a long. Thus, the crew met the rule of blowing the whistle at the whistle post, and also blowing the standard signal for the crossing. Thus, both rules were met!

Les