Sound can travel a very long way, especially if there are no buildings or hilltops to soak up the sound. If you live somewhere very quiet and very flat then I would not be surprised to hear a horn from miles away.
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No, train vibrations do not cause cracking in houses (sheetrock, stucco, etc) that are more than 20 to 30 feet away from the tracks.
By the time a train operator sees you, it is too late to stop the train in time. An oncoming train is moving faster and is closer to you than it appears. Similar to an airplane traveling at 150 mph that appears to float onto the runway, it's hard to determine a train's speed and distance from you.
Fact #4: Trains Can Stop, But Not QuicklySo if you think a train can see you and stop in time, think again. Trains cannot stop quickly enough to avoid a collision, which is why vehicles should never drive around lowered gates or try to “beat” a train.
Anyway, don't blame the engineer: They're required to blow that horn. The regulation in question is called the Final Rule on the Use of Locomotive Horns—a name that strongly implies they've had just about enough of your bitching—and it requires four blasts 15 to 20 seconds before every crossing.
Why do trains sound their horn? Federal law requires the train crew when approaching a road crossing to sound the horn at all public crossings for the protection and safety of motorists and pedestrians regardless of whether crossings with gates and lights are present.
Different tracks have different amounts of vibration at different frequencies. And of course high speed routes even if you could feel them you may still not have time to get out of the way before a train obliterates you. So in some cases you'll feel the vibrations before the train comes and in others you may not.
In one study conducted at the BNSF Railway Hobart Railyard in Los Angeles, the California Environmental Protection Agency estimated that residents living near a railyard experienced a higher risk of carcinogen exposure.