The quieter train whistles installed in Ames last fall have been met with rousing approval by residents.

A survey conducted by Ames traffic engineer Scott Logan showed over 90 percent of the residents affected by the automated train whistles feel the new safety measures have improved their neighborhoods.

“People were clearly very pleased with the results,” Logan said.

The automated whistle systems, which were installed Sept. 21, were placed at the railroad crossings at Scholl Road, Hazel Avenue and North Dakota Avenue.

The new whistles have been able to greatly reduce noise because instead of being on the actual train car, the automated whistles are installed at the crossing. The track-mounted whistles are able to direct the noise down the intersecting road, keeping loud noise away from nearby residences and focused on the area in need of warning.

Logan said the survey involved 261 residents who lived within 1,000 feet of the intersections with the new automated whistles.

The residents were questioned before and after the automated whistles were installed about how the noise from the railroad crossings affected them.

Before the automated whistles, 85 percent of the surveyed residents said the train-mounted horns created a “quality of life problem,” according to the survey.

After the whistle change, 91 percent of the residents said there was a significant decrease in noise from the intersections, and 85 percent went so far as to say train horns were no longer a problem in their lives.

Nearly half of the survey respondents also attached comments to their completed surveys, Logan said.

“From the comments we read, many of the residents were delighted to actually have a good night’s sleep,” Logan said. “They enjoyed being able to have their family and friends over without feeling bad. Many also were happy they didn’t have to turn their TVs way up anymore.”

However, not all of the comments were positive. Logan said almost half of the comments were complaints concerning train engineers who still were blowing their train-mounted horns.

“We’re working with Union Pacific with how to cut down on that,” Logan said. “We think that we’re getting about 90 to 95 percent compliance, but when you get as many trains as we do a day, that’s still a lot.”

Train engineers only are supposed to blow their mounted horns if the strobe light on an automated horn is not lit, or if humans, animals or vehicles are too close to the track.

Logan said it is difficult for the engineers to remember not to blow their horns.

“It’s understandable,” he said. “We have to realize that the engineers go through hundreds of crossings a day, and the great majority are not automated.”

Logan said residents have been noting exact times when horns were blowing, and he has been sending that information to Union Pacific.

Ames City Councilwoman Ann Campbell said she has also heard positive feedback about the new whistles.

“From what I’ve heard, people are real pleased with them,” Campbell said.

She said because of the whistles’ success at reducing noise pollution, the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for fiscal year 2000 includes plans for three more automated train whistles.

The new whistles all will be installed during June in the downtown area, at the crossings at Duff Avenue, Clark Avenue and Kellogg Avenue, Logan said.

Campbell said the $310,000 alloted for railroad crossroads improvements will pay for the three new automated whistles and for gate arms on the crossings at 13th Street and 24th Street.

Logan said with the addition of the three new whistles in town, every residential railroad crossing would be muted.

“The only one left would be the crossing at Dayton,” Logan said, “and that’s an industrial area.”