The Return of Horn Alley! Train horns in downtown San Diego January 23, 2024

Amtraks and Coasters coming in and out of downtown San Diego encounter six grade level crossings between the Santa Fe Depot and Laurel Street. Once known as "horn alley," this stretch of track became a quiet zone in 2012 after repeated complaints from residents about the train horns. But in mid-January, the FRA lifted the quiet zone restriction after finding that certain safety requirements were not being made. Until they deemed that such requirements were met, the sound of train horns once again returned to downtown San Diego! Not wanting to miss this opportunity, I ventured downtown on January 23 and got to hear some amazing K5LAs return to horn alley!

The quite zone was reinstated on January 29.

0:00 Intro
0:10 Cab car 2301 leads Coaster 638 across Beech street as it pulls into downtown. The engineer on this one was pretty modest with the horn
1:21 The engineer on Amtrak 587 is not shy with cab car 6900's amazing horn as it crosses Ash, Beech, and Cedar streets while departing downtown, much to the annoyance of a homeless person at the County Center/Little Italy trolley station. LOL!
3:27 Cab car 2309 blasts a loud and crisp K5LA across Cedar street while pulling into downtown with Coaster train 640
5:01 Siemens SC-44 Charger 5002 blasts its monster horn as it leads train 639 across Cedar Street! The group of tourists behind me seemed to get a kick out of it as well!
6:33 With only a few minutes of residual daylight left, Coaster 642 pulls into downtown San Diego at Beech street. Another awesome horn on cab car 2308!
8:43 The trainset used on 640 has been renumbered for train 641 and departs San Diego, led by SC-44 Charger 5008.
9:55 Double headed SC-44s, 2111 & 2118, lead Surfliner 580 across Beech Street as they complete their run from Los Angeles.
11:16 Coaster 644 crosses Cedar Street, at about the same time that a blue or green line trolley performs its station stop at County Center/Little Italy. In hindsight, I should have moved my camera up further so that no one could walk in front of me.
12:18 Coaster 643 departs downtown with SC-44 5006 doing the honors
14:00 Not far behind 643, Coaster 645 also begins its return journey to Oceanside
15:46 Led by cab car 6907 with another amazing K5LA, Amtrak 591 crosses Beech street while departing San Diego.
17:24 Just as the first train of the day had a mild horn mannered engineer, Coaster 646 ends the day with equally modest horn blasts that still manage to sound great! This shot came out a little too "in your face" than I intended