Demon Trains
Against Freight Train Pollutinon & Disruption
In my otherwise quiet Portland, OR neighborhood, silence, peace, and clean air are all under assault from a constant barrage of freight trains. It might be happening in your neighborhood too! They park up to 24 hours at a time β engines idling, spewing pollution near hundreds of families and a grade school. This site monitors sound 24/7 and logs horn blasts and idling (stopped) locomotives to keep record and show you the alarming situation.
Hi! π Here's what we're doing here.
WTF is this?
This site is about the trains that are trying to ruin my neighborhood in Woodlawn, Northeast Portland, Oregon.
What is it, though?
I monitor the sound going through the neighborhood 24/7, and specifically scan for train horns. This is as simple a setup as it is loud, especially given normal background noise.
Why?
A certain train megacorp, let's call them Disunion Pathetic, uses my neighborhood as a train parking lot despite there not being a train yard here or anywhere near this part of Portland. They park trains here, presumably waiting for the tracks to clear further down the line, where they sit and wait, sometimes for 8, 12, even 24 hours, spewing pollution, engines loudly idling, pneumatic air pumps loudly filling then releasing pressure (air breaks). At all hours.
There's a grade school nearby.
4am? They don't care.
To add just a little spice, they'll sadistically lay on the horn, rather than the few short toots required by law for the crossing nearby. We'll get to that.
So what do you want?
- Don't Park Here: If you need to stop and wait for tracks to clear, do it not in the city, near hundreds of families just trying to live their lives without your poisonous emissions and sound pollution.
- Minimize Pollution: Train engines emit harmful pollutants that contribute to air pollution. The Woodlawn neighborhood is not a train yard. The city of Portland needs to test the emissions and be transparent about how much these trains are poisoning my neighbors, the grade school, and myself.
- Close the Crossing: The road crossing, which they loudly honk for, is neither heavily used nor seemingly strategically important. At the very least, close it at night so people can rest without getting blasted out of sleep. Make it an underpass or overpass. But the cheapest option would be to just close it.
- Alternate Routes: There are many, many, many train tracks leading into Portland and the surrounds. The city, along with residents, deserve an explanation of why they must pollute and disrupt, with the such frequency, an otherwise peaceful place to live.
Have questions or suggestions? Feel free to reach out through our Community Forums.
FAQ: Horn events, idle trains, and how we track them
What those amber idle events mean, how we merge them into periods, and why this is all best-effort.