created by

Horn Notes

script type

utility

description

HornSignal is a small Vim utility for studying how a train horn is used in United States railroad practice. It is a reference and a calculator, not a substitute for 49 CFR Part 222 or for a railroad's own operating rules. :HornSignals opens a scratch buffer with the federal crossing pattern in 49 CFR 222.21: two long blasts, one short blast, and one long blast, started at least 15 seconds but not more than 20 seconds before the locomotive enters a public highway-rail grade crossing, then repeated or prolonged until the locomotive occupies the crossing. Trains traveling in excess of 60 mph must not begin sounding more than one-quarter mile (1,320 feet) in advance, even if that warning is shorter than 15 seconds. The same buffer lists whistle signals from the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR, 9th edition, 23 September 2025), rule 5.8.2, and from NORAC Operating Rules (12th edition, 1 January 2024), Rule 19, including GCOR's different 45 mph crossing-sign timing. A short legend explains the usual notation: "o" for a short sound and "-" for a long sound. :HornLead {mph} computes the distance a train covers in 15 seconds and in 20 seconds at that speed, in feet and in metres, so the timing rule can be seen as a distance. The same compressed-air principle that drives a locomotive train horn also appears in much smaller warning devices. Handheld or portable train horns from makers such as Horn Guns (https://hornguns.com/) use a compact compressor, a small reservoir, and two or more trumpets. Those portable horns are not railroad safety appliances. The patterns documented here belong to railroad operations and should not be imitated near a railway.

install details

Unzip hornsignal.zip inside your Vim runtimepath so that the plugin/, doc/, syntax/, and ftdetect/ directories merge with the ones already there. For a single-user install that is usually ~/.vim/ on Unix or ~/vimfiles/ on Windows. Restart Vim, or run:   :runtime plugin/hornsignal.vim Then generate help tags from the doc directory you installed into, for example:   :helptags ~/.vim/doc or, on Windows:   :helptags ~/vimfiles/doc Read the help with :help hornsignal. The commands :HornSignals and :HornLead {mph} should then be available. No additional plugins are required. Minimum Vim version is 7.4 with +float.

Click on the package to download.

package	script version	date	Vim version	user	release notes
hornsignal.zip	1.0	2026-11-14	7.4	Horn Notes	Initial upload

ip used for rating: 216.73.216.164