Do Japanese trains use the horn as a greeting?

[Densha]

Just as the title implies, do Japanese trains use the horn as a greeting? For example: greeting railfans.

Where I live, The Netherlands, about 1/10 of the trains passing by uses it to greet railfans. Or that's at least what it feels like to me when I stand at place that's not a station and having my photo camera in my hand. Also there are many videos of Dutch trains at youtube in which they use the horn to greet, but I haven't seen many Japanese in which they use it. In videos of trains in other countries in Europe and the US I've also seen them using it as greeting.

It is some kind of discipline not to do it in Japan or has it a different reason behind it? Of course I understand that using it in cities and towns wouldn't be a very good idea, but outside of them it should be no problem.

[bill937ca]

A few Japanese trains have musical horns which are sounded while passing through stations where they do not stop, on departing stations or on stopping at stations.  The prime example of this is Meitetsu.  Odakyu VSE and MSE have musical horns. Musical horns are rare on JR trains. I think its more of a prestige limited express thing than a greeting.  

 

 

Edited March 31, 2018 by bill937ca

[Densha]

Both are different lines, but still the same music, that's not really useful. The only way that it comes in handy is that you know that your train arrived and you know you have to get in that one, instead of one from another company, because both use the same tune. It is really annoying, wouldn't the drivers get crazy after driving that train for weeks?

As I thought of the horn.

[westfalen]

It is really annoying, wouldn't the drivers get crazy after driving that train for weeks?

It would probably do that to me after the first couple of times.

 

From my observations in Japan they don't even blow the horn approaching level crossings unless they've just passed a train going the opposite direction, I assume to make users of the crossing aware a second train is coming. It does seem the rule however to blow the horn when entering a tunnel.

[ToniBabelony]

Train horns in Japan are mainly used as warning signals by drivers, but there are of course also a few who give railfans 'fan-service', but this is very rare indeed.

 

For instance here:

 

and here:

 

By the way, JR trains do have quite a number of music horns, but mostly not on commuter trains. I've been working on a list for the JapanSet for OpenTTD to add horns to already existing trains.

 

In the attachments I've added the four music horns used by the JR trains in the JapanSet. The interesting thing is that Music01 (251, 253 and E259 Series in my datasheet screenshot) is very close to the Odakyu music horn.

 

Yes, I'm a huge japanese train horn buff if I may say so, so here's one of my favourite videos on youtube.

 

Toei interlocking trains + horns. Oh yeah!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgD_IXNjlME

Music01.wav

Music02.wav

Music03.wav

Music04.wav

[Densha]

@westfalen

I assume they will horn if the rail crossing doesn't have gates? In The Netherlands they don't use the horn at rail crossings with gates most of the times, it's also difficult to find one without them.

 

@Toni

Isn't that second video the emperors train?

 

OpenTTD, it's a great game, but the graphics make the graphics are a bit too old for me. I only play Locomotion, there are only a few Japanese trains available for that one though. It's the only game I play, though I don't have played it much the last months, I don't really have time for it. But this getting a bit off-topic...

 

Lol.

[ToniBabelony]

@Toni

Isn't that second video the emperors train?

 

Not exactly. It's the new 5-car E655 Series "Nagomi". A super-deluxe joyful train (a rental, just like "de Kameel" once was in the Netherlands) where the imperial carriage can be added, making the train a 6-car consist.

[bikkuri bahn]

I assume they will horn if the rail crossing doesn't have gates?

 

As westfalen states, they don't sound the horn in general, gates or no gates. Horns are used when a potential obstruction presents itself, or at entrances to tunnels, approaching a platform in low visibility situations, etc.

[gmat]

On the Odakyu Line from Shimokitazawa to Shinjuku today, I had noticed that the driver toots the horn as it approaches workers between or alongside the tracks. They in turn have a spotter waving a light green flag and all of the workers raise an arm an look at the approaching train. Sometimes it blows the horn as it approaches a crossing or station that curves out of the line of sight, like Yoyogi-Hachiman Station. They will blow the horn if someone is walking on the other side of the yellow warning line. There might be a few more situations that I've not noticed or have forgotten.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[Densha]

@Toni

Isn't that second video the emperors train?

 

Not exactly. It's the new 5-car E655 Series "Nagomi". A super-deluxe joyful train (a rental, just like "de Kameel" once was in the Netherlands) where the imperial carriage can be added, making the train a 6-car consist.

I expected that they would have a special train for the emperor itself, since they have so many trains in Japan. I don't understand why people would travel with it though, because it costs a fortune and the 1st class in Japan is very luxury, that's at least the image I get from looking at the internet. And again I compare it to my country, here we put a royal carriage between an ordinary intercity train, but why wouldn't they?

 

I think I'm getting an image of how it works with the horn, it's still dangerous that it's not used if there are no gates.

Using the horn when people are too close to the tracks is something that's not really done where I live, they should start doing that too.

[westfalen]

On the Odakyu Line from Shimokitazawa to Shinjuku today, I had noticed that the driver toots the horn as it approaches workers between or alongside the tracks. They in turn have a spotter waving a light green flag and all of the workers raise an arm an look at the approaching train. Sometimes it blows the horn as it approaches a crossing or station that curves out of the line of sight, like Yoyogi-Hachiman Station. They will blow the horn if someone is walking on the other side of the yellow warning line. There might be a few more situations that I've not noticed or have forgotten.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

If their rules are the same as ours and the workers don't respond to the horn the driver has to attempt to stop before he reaches them and keep sounding the horn until stopped or they acknowledge.

[westfalen]

I think I'm getting an image of how it works with the horn, it's still dangerous that it's not used if there are no gates.

Using the horn when people are too close to the tracks is something that's not really done where I live, they should start doing that too.

Don't forget Japan is a very different country to your's and mine. The Japanese people have for centuries had obedience hardwired into their minds from the days when the local lord laid down rules covering every aspect of their lives, so when modern Japanese come to a sign saying "Look out for trains" they normally do what it says.

 

One good thing about the Japanese practice of not blowing whistles unless you have to is that videos of steam excursions and tourist railways don't have the constant, annoying whistle blowing you hear in U.S. videos.

[Densha]

@westfalen

I don't think that young people really have much to do with that obedience anymore, some stuff is more strict like in the US and The Netherlands like schools and so, but so far I know there's much less of it then ages ago.

But if everyone is accustomed to that trains don't use the horn, it will be less of a problem too.

 

That's at least one advantage of it.

[gmat]

I've seen the kids close up in their homes and know it isn't hard wired but instilled at home and later in school each generation. It's peer pressure, where you feel that you are judged by everyone around you that keeps people here in line. Where a version of team spirit and don't let you buddies down keeps you on the straight and narrow. And if you stray, ostracism and bullying are used. My wife felt free to do things in public when visiting me in America that she nixed when she got back to Japan.

Some people say that the Japanese are more mature and responsible. Comparing my wife with me, it's true.

[John P Boogerd]

They sound like Dutch ambulances with the three-tone horns - if I had heard that without knowing what it was, I would immediately think of a Dutch ambulance.  It's pretty neat, though!

[stevenh]

They definitely say 'hello' to eachother...

 

Here is a video I took in December 2009 of two Super Hokutos passing in Hokkaido. I'm in the front of the north-bound service and they pass around 3/4 of the way through the movie.

 

http://modelrail.otenko.com/photo-album?itemid=6911

[bikkuri bahn]

One good thing about the Japanese practice of not blowing whistles unless you have to is that videos of steam excursions and tourist railways don't have the constant, annoying whistle blowing you hear in U.S. videos.

 

Amen.  And people are worried about "deafening noise" from proposed high speed trains in the U.S., when right now mile long freight trains pass through their towns, horns blowing and rumbling for 10, 15 minutes at a time multiple times/day.  Lack of sense.

[KenS]

Well, in the U.S. the towns that have any freight left today are a minority, and most people probably don't think about horns when they think about trains, just about the wind/motor noise they'd hear near a highway.  Nobody wants to live near a new high-speed railway for the same reason they don't want to live near a highway.

 

I've always found the people who complain about train horns in their towns a bit puzzling, particularly those who want "quiet" grade crossings.  I'd much rather hear the train coming if I was at one; warning signals and gates can fail to operate.  And I live 1/4 mile from a grade crossing, and within hearing of two others, that get a double-dozen commuter trains daily, plus a couple of freights, all of which blow for all three crossings, starting at 5 AM.  I stopped noticing the horns when I was at home long ago, a few months after I moved here, even in the spring/fall when I'm sleeping with open windows.  I find police/ambulance sirens a whole lot more intrusive, simply because they're less common.

 

If I lived next to the crossing, I'd probably think otherwise. But most of the people who complain don't live next to grade crossings either.

[westfalen]

One good thing about the Japanese practice of not blowing whistles unless you have to is that videos of steam excursions and tourist railways don't have the constant, annoying whistle blowing you hear in U.S. videos.

 

Amen.  And people are worried about "deafening noise" from proposed high speed trains in the U.S., when right now mile long freight trains pass through their towns, horns blowing and rumbling for 10, 15 minutes at a time multiple times/day.  Lack of sense.

I was thinking more of the typical photo runby on Sherman Hill where I'd just like to listen to 844 or 3985 working hard with a 20 car passenger train but everything is drowned out by a continuous series of --0-'s for imaginary grade crossings. Maybe American railfans are more used to whistle blowing.

 

I do remember though, riding the first car of an Amtrak train from St Louis to Kansas City when the bell on the F40PH hauling the train literally didn't stop ringing the whole trip as if it was stuck on, now that was annoying.

[bikkuri bahn]

Maybe American railfans are more used to whistle blowing.

 

People are used to what's been done all the time, I guess. Clarifying my comment, something different or unknown, even when it has less of an impact than current conditions , is seen with fear or opposition, as in the case of noise from HSR, which most Americans have no personal experience with. It's like Victorian-era farmers fearing the "iron horse" because they thought a passing train would scare the cows from milking.

[Densha]

I did found a video in which they horn, one of the first times I found one myself.

(Don't know how to include the video)

[railsquid]

On 21/10/2011 at 6:32 PM, Densha said:

Just as the title implies, do Japanese trains use the horn as a greeting? For example: greeting railfans.

 

Sorry to dig up this ancient thread (was looking for something else) but I can definitively state that about 30~50% of drivers on the Chuo line are happy to tootle their horns at children waving to them from the bridge just west of Mitaka station.

Edited March 31, 2018 by railsquid