Committee Studying Heavy-Metal Sounds -- Neighbors Seeking Peace From Railroad-Yard Noise

To Jim Smith, "it literally sounds like thunder or an artillery barrage."

To John Feathers, it's the "squealing and squalling . . . of steel against steel."

And to John Klepper, "It's like a jet plane taking off, but it stays for 15 minutes at a time."

That's what Queen Anne and Magnolia residents say it's like to live near of Burlington Northern Railroad's lines, switching yard and roundhouse at Interbay.

The complaints of Interbay neighbors against the grating sounds of coupling cars, steel brakes and throbbing diesel engines - especially on summer nights when windows are left open - stretch back for decades.

But with booming Port of Seattle business, including expanding trade with Asia, rail traffic has increased significantly in the past half-dozen years.

Now, however, Smith, Feathers and Klepper, members of the voluntary Rail Noise Mitigation Committee, have hope that something might be done about the worst of the rail noise.

Convened by the Port earlier this year, the 14-member committee includes representatives from the railroad, the city, the Seattle-King County Health Department, Magnolia and Queen Anne residents and the Port itself.

A VAST OPERATION

The panel is examining a vast railroad operation.

Howard Kallio, Burlington Northern public-information officer, said about 42 trains a day move through the city. The Interbay complex stretches from the grain terminal to the switching yard and a roundhouse and diesel shop at the north end. From 800 to 1,000 employees a day - train crews, mechanics, clerks, maintenance workers and supervisors - are involved.

And, unfortunately for neighbors, "a lot of our trains originate and terminate at nighttime hours," Kallio said.

Part of the problem is that Interbay topographically forms a huge amphitheater carrying sound up to the homes on the hillsides of Queen Anne and Magnolia.

"Even 20 years ago, there were a lot of trees and single-family housing up there," Kallio observed. "Now there has been a tremendous growth of apartments and condominium complexes. A lot of the trees that used to buffer some of the sound are gone."

Kallio said Burlington Northern is sensitive to the problem.

Because of neighborhood objections, the railroad about two years ago decided to place a $2 million diesel-fueling station next to the roundhouse, instead of farther south as originally planned.

But putting sound barriers around rails, as suggested, poses a safety hazard to workers, Kallio said.

"The fact remains that it's a railroad yard and railroads are a heavy industry, a facility vital not only to what we do here in the state of Washington, but vital to our whole nation," he added.

GROWING ACTIVITY

Smith, a semi-retired commercial artist who has lived above the grain terminal at Pier 86 for three decades, said he never had much reason to complain until about 1984 when there was "a significant increase in activity with the grain terminal."

He helped gather signatures for petitions and lobbied officials.

The temporary chairman of the new noise committee, Chuck Kleeberg, who is director of environmental health for the Seattle-King County Health Department, said Interbay rail noise was one of the issues a mayor's noise committee looked at in the mid-'80s, but "for various reasons the committee was gradually dissolved."

Kleeberg said the Federal Railroad Administration regulates the railroad noise. Measured noise levels at Interbay are four to 10 times city noise ordinance limits, but in compliance with the federal noise standards, he said.

Right now the committee is setting its goals, gathering data and trying to determine what consultant help it may need to hire, Kleeberg said. He said the group would turn to the community, the city, the port and the railroad to help with financing.

Kleeberg said that the city and community also need to examine what they can do. For example, the city could require noise-insulated windows for new construction, regulate how properties are aligned and install sound barriers.

"I'm hoping we will have some recommendations to the decision-makers at the port, Burlington Northern and the city of Seattle within a year," Kleeberg said.

Feathers, a banker who lives on the east side of Magnolia, said he had little hope of a solution to the noise "when this composite committee was formed.

"I'm encouraged by the cross-section of people sitting at one table," he said.