In part because I’m sick of all the references to Terminix and Ant Farms for sale at the top of my page, and in part because I’m tired today, allow me to vent!
For the unaware, Apex, NC is this “special” location on the former Seaboard Air Line RR: the highest point on the line between Washington, D.C. and Miami, the two ends of that particular railroad. So…over the years, as railroads have been constantly taking each other over, it has fallen into the control of CSX. CSX continues to operate a depot and switching station in old historic downtown Apex. Helper engines are permanantly assigned to Apex to help freight trains up and down the grades…it’s uphill to Apex from both the north and the south.
Hence the town’s name.
Our house is about 2 miles from downtown Apex. When the winds are from the west, you can hear the train whistles pretty loudly from the switching operations. Since the engines have to cross several streets in downtown Apex, they have to sound off their whistle several times. For some reason, 3-4 times per month, CSX finds some reason to do all this switching in the middle of the night! And when the winds are right, you can hear a lot of whistling! Incidentally, my bedroom has windows that face towards the west — towards downtown Apex — so it can get pretty loud…and annoying.
Because it isn’t a constant blaring of the horn…the blasts are sometimes a minute apart, 2 minutes apart, 10 seconds apart…you just don’t know when the next one will be.
This morning, it started at about 5:45am, and continued until after Timmy wandered in at about 7:30am. I would JUST DRIFT BACK TO SLEEP, when another whistle blast would awaken me.
So I’m tired today.
PS: I *know* that switching is better off done at night, when there’s less auto traffic being inconvenienced waiting at the crossing gates. A couple of the crossings sometimes have the gates down for upwards of 1/2 hour, as a train scoots back and forth as they add/subtract freight cars.
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