File Photo/The Community News: Aledo residents who live near the railroad may soon rest easier with the installation of new wayside horns at local crossings.

City approves measure to silence trains
By Saerom Yoo
The Community News
For many Aledo residents, the sound of train horns blasting through this small town has become so imbued in their lives that they barely notice.
Aledo was born as a railroad town in the early 1880s as a connecting point between Fort Worth and Weatherford along the Texas and Pacific Railway.
Today, the town’s old-fashioned storefronts greet several trains daily as they thunder along the tracks.
In this town of 1.9 square miles and about 2,700 residents, the train horn is a commanding presence – almost one of the townspeople themselves.
For Charlie McLain, 78, the town’s history gives him reason to defend the trains’ noise.
“It was here first,” he said.
But the horns that reverberate through town up to 30 times a day at up to 140 decibels cannot be ignored.
“It is so loud the folks at the church almost put it in the program,” councilman Bill McLeRoy said at the Nov. 20 meeting.
The City Council unanimously approved the installation of the wayside train horn system, a stationary digital horn sound that is less intense than the actual train horn, which ranges from 96 to 140 decibels.

For the rest of the story, see the Nov. 28 issue of The Community News, or download a copy here.