ASSESSMENT OF NOISE ENVIRONMENTS AROUND RAILROAD OPERATIONS

The railroad industry has moved to supplement the current knowledge in the areas of prediction of noise emitted by railroad operations in anticipation of Federal and State regulations concerning the environment. This report is largely directed at satisfaction of the "noise elements" portion of the State of California Code Number 65302 and to provide useful background data to aid the Federal Government in its efforts towards proposed rule making. The California Code requires that the agency responsible for the construction or maintenance of the railroads provide data on the present and projected noise levels of their system and any information used to develop such levels. The noise levels or contours may be expressed in any standard acoustical scale which includes both the magnitude of noise and frequency of occurrence. In satisfaction of the "noise elements" requirement, this report incorporates A-weighted noise measurements of both line and yard operations, and weights their duration in terms of total integrated sound energy for each event or combined series of events. Additionally, a methodology has been presented for application to line and yard operations which allows inclusion of weighting factors for time of day of the noise event and numbers of events during defined time periods. The broad topic of noise emitted by railroad operations has been divided into two general categories: line operations and yard operations.

  • Record URL:
  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Prepared for Southern Pacific Transportation Company, Union Pacific Railroad, The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, and The Association of American Railroads.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Wyle Laboratories

    128 Maryland Street
    El Segundo, CA  United States  90245
  • Authors:
    • Swing, J W
    • Pies, D B
  • Publication Date: 1973-7

Media Info

  • Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 112 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00051352
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: No. WCR 73.5
  • Contract Numbers: 0300-94-07991
  • Files: NTL, TRIS
  • Created Date: Apr 17 1974 12:00AM