Trains to horn in on the big game
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Whatever romantic notions you might hold about the far-off sound of a train horn can be easily dashed for the nominal fee of a ticket in the cheap seats at Safeco Field, where at least once a game your teeth will be rattled courtesy of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.
Well, maybe that fee won't be so nominal, at least not today.
But All-Stars or not, the trains will keep a rollin' and the train horns will keep a blowin', causing the ESPN and Fox Network sports heads to flinch, stop their easy patter and strain their voices to holler over the clacking freight trains that run on the tracks just a few feet east of the stadium.
As many as 70 freight trains a day use those tracks, part of the railroad's main line that runs from Seattle through Portland to Chicago. And every one of those trains must traverse Royal Brougham Avenue, the busy thoroughfare on the north side of Safeco Field that is crowded with fans before and after games.
While there are gates, warning bells and flashing lights, BNSF and the city decided that trains must also sound a warning whistle as they approach the crossing. That's the blast that shakes the seats out in center field and echoes around the 47,000-seat stadium.
According to Gus Melonas, the railroad's spokesman in Seattle, fans have embraced the horns and train noise as part of the Safeco ambience. The short-lived talk of suspending the horns for All-Star weekend, sought by the Mariners, was met with overwhelming opposition, he said.
As recently as last week, Melonas said, ESPN and Fox were still trying to have the horns silenced - although they were also asking him for information about the trains so they could explain the racket to their viewers.
He said the railway would have accommodated the networks and stopped the horns, but the city wasn't willing to suspend its requirement that trains sound a warning as they approach the Royal Brougham crossing.
Fans, Melonas said, find the frequent blasts "part of the ballpark atmosphere" and perhaps a fitting herald of the Mariners' juggernaut.
Kids love trains, he added, and a lot of baseball fans are kids at heart, so the two have made for a perfect pairing - the blast off the bat and the receding blast from a passing train go together, ball-in-glove.
It's just a myth, however, that pro-Mariners engineers might be timing their blasts to put an exclamation point on a good play or chump the swing of an opposing batter.
In fact, the sequence of horn blasts from an approaching train is dictated by the type of crossing. Public crossings, Melonas explained, get two long blasts, a short blast, and another long blast. Law requires the sequence to begin a quarter-mile from the crossing and be repeated until the engine of the train occupies the intersection.
In older engines, the engineer pulls a handle to blow the horn, but must still follow the sequence. The handle allows the engineer, Melonas said, to "feather" the sound with slight volume adjustments.
Most of the trains that rumble by Safeco are automated, however, and the engineer - regardless of his fan leanings - simply pushes a button to begin the sequence ... and then can turn back to his sports page.