The Latest Fad In Pop culture-Train Horns

by Yves B. Geller

Cars are macho and in the hands of owners flaunting fat wallets they’re transformed into motor vehicles that are different. Oddity or originality, call it what you will, but the humdrum four-wheeler motor car as we ordinary folks know it is infused with healthy doses of pop culture that dramatically change its looks and style. Bizarre is better, pop is proper and it’s all a statement of attitude ? the kind, though, that Papa didn’t preach! A specific statement of haute style, distressing and annoying to many, is the fitting of train horns on these cars.

The conventional uses of train horns are for signaling or cautionary applications. It is once used in trains to caution its presence and proximity to stations and into sports to cue certain actions in the game proceedings. Today, deviant behaviors brought the use of train horns into custom designed vehicles. To enjoy louder, aggressive and intimidating honking down the street, some vehicle owners have replaced original car horns with the monstrous pipes of customized train horns.

What drives people ? literally ? to customize their cars at huge cost before buying them? Pardonably perhaps, a few very rich individuals might use this technique to flaunt their wealth. From amongst this super-rich lot, a sprinkling purportedly espouses aesthetic reasons. So they lower the chassis, incorporate swing doors and slanting headlights, tint the glasses and so on to make the car sleek, smart and swish to levels the manufacturer did not reach. Fair enough. But why train horns? That’s a whim monstrously undesirable to many with normal eardrums! What sort of self-gratification is this?

Crazily enough, it’s not just in cars that train horns have found unwarranted and generally unacceptable modern-day uses. Let’s quickly run through four of these. It might be used in a classroom to harass the teacher and have a few moments’ silence follow the hideous blast. When telemarketers call, it’s blown into the telephone receiver to give the unwanted caller an ear-blast that’s meant to deter future calls. It’s honked its way on to the reggae music platform too, adding its penny worth of noise to the reggae hullabaloo. Trucks use it on highways ? that’s at least logical.

Just like other fads, the popularity of using train horns in various activities created some problems. People who install these horns in their vehicles aim to improve the performance as well as the impression of their vehicle’s presence. Since many retailers tend to exaggerate the dB levels that these horns normally produce, they are usually very laud when used in streets and highways. It even come to the point that police officers were ordered to implement an ordinance against the use of train horns on vehicles for the reason that it may create distractions to other drivers. All the concern is about driving safety and the peace and quiet of the neighborhood. However, nobody can deny a person right to self-expression. There’s no denying that train horns have become unique commodities that only few vehicle have or could afford to have. However, it would be better if train horns were used wisely and appropriately.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 and is filed under Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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