When a train is chugging across the countryside at speed, the engine is pretty loud for bystanders. The horn is of course extremely loud.
How much of this sound is apparent for the operator in the cab? A locomotive doesn’t have the weight constraints that an aircraft does, so I’m sure they can install loads of sound suppression material, but that stuff can’t do much to dissipate the super-low frequency throbbing of the engine. And again, that horn is awfully loud, and positioned pretty much directly above the cab.
Is it common for train operators to wear hearing protection? Is long-term hearing loss a problem for them?
On a modern diesel loco, not very noisy at all. I have seen documentaries where the driver is sitting in a comfortable chair and having a normal conversation with someone on the other side of the cab.
Without making any comment about modern diesel locomotives: on trains when I was a kid, the horn was actually pretty directional. You could sit directly behind the driver and not have it bother you.
Not at all like the torpedoes they used to put on the line to warn of line work. After passing over those on a couple of days, nobody sat up front behind the driver.
I noticed something similar about sirens. People think that because (particularly in the city) you can’t tell what direction a siren comes from, that somehow means it’s spreading in all directions, and you can’t tell where it’s pointed. Actually, quite different things: if you can hear it, it’s pointed at you. Even though it’s echoing from beside you and behind you.
Based on this thread on a railroader forum, it looks like 85dB is the modern standard, but 90-120 dB is not uncommon—and a fair number of crews do wear ear protection.
A friend of mine is a retired locomotive operator. He spent forty years on the trains.
He wears hearing aids, because in the old days, there was very little sound insulation between the cab and the diesel engines. It was noisy. He tells me that in later years, steps were taken to mitigate the noise exposure, but it was too late for him. He lost a lot of his hearing, and wears hearing aids to this day.
On the bright side, he tells me that locomotive cabs have a lot more noise protection today. There is no need for hearing protection in the cab, though (he adds) there should have been in the old days.
About 10 years back, my colleagues and I were having an engineering design review at the GE transportation plant in Erie, Pennsylvania. Afterwards we got to take the newest (at that time) locomotive for a test “drive”. GE had private railroad tracks for this purpose.
It was not noisy at all but that maybe because it was a test setup. The seats were comfortable too but it was remarked that commercial operators do the bare minimum furnishing for the driver’s comfort.