What is everyone using for hearing protection while running steam (if anything)? Is there anything out there that will help mute some of the in-cab sounds while still leaving radio/rod noise audible?

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I can understand Kelly's point. I know of several 'old heads' who would completely agree with him and elected against any hearing protection throughout their careers. Now in their older age, they have medical requirements to use hearing aids when operating locomotives because they can't hear the radio or any other audible communications without them.

As for me, I like the cheap, disposable squishy ones. I think they reduce by about 20db's. Enough to take the edge off the screeching whistle, but I can still hear the radio and the fireman occasionally.

Eric

You might try some of the earplugs designed for musicians. I used these in a band for several years and they were helpful. The idea is they reduce the sound level uniformly across the frequency range so what you hear sounds normal, just quieter. They appeared to use an element with baffles to reduce the sound level.

I just did a quick google search and there appears to be a lot of options for something like this out there now, with a wide price range, but there are a lot of options from $15-$20.

I’m not a fanatic on hearing protection, but the first time I had a professional hearing test at the age of 22 I found out I already had 40% loss of my high frequency hearing. (When I was a kid, I went to work with my dad a lot of days and spent several hours standing behind him a few feet away from the unmuffled Diesel engine in the crane he operated which is likely what damaged my hearing.) The audiologist kind of put the fear of God in me about protecting my hearing. Just be aware, if you lose it, you can’t get it back. If your ears are ringing after you’ve been exposed to noise, you’ve likely suffered some permanent hearing loss, and damage is cumulative. The last time I had a test ~10 years ago, I hadn’t lost any additional hearing since my first test many years ago.

When I was a boy, my hearing was tested, and the Dr. said I could hear like a dog. I studied violin for years, but eventually I got an honest job with BN. I refused to wear hearing protection because it's hard enough to hear the radio without it, even though my co workers would nag me about it because they knew I played the violin.

One night the yardmaster made a mistake. He had cleared me to run the length of our yard thinking that the switch job using the lead when he gave the order, would be finished by the time we got around to making our move. Without going into all the gruesome details, at the very last possible instant before my brakeman was squished like a zit, I heard the very quietest possible voice on the radio say "That'll do, Sam King". I had 7 big jacks on a pretty good downgrade, with about 15 feet before we fouled the lead, and I had kicked off my air, lined the reversor, and was just notching up --- I shut off, threw my motors in reverse, and grabbed notch one. A hundred ton loaded cement car sailed by us at about 20 miles an hour, the ribs flashing by just inches from the window on my blind side. My pilot was sitting in the fireman's seat and saw his life flash before his eyes, but somehow that car missed us. I bet you couldn't have slipped a business card between our snowplow and the loading bays on that car. That was at least 30 years ago, but somebody told me that they saw my brakeman recently.

I am legally deaf now, through no fault of the railroad, because I never wore earplugs. If I had been offered the choice of losing my mid range hearing, or having my helper killed at work that night, I would not have hesitated to take the same actions I did. In one sense I have no regrets, because I had a plenty successful career as a strolling violinist after I left the railroad business, until my RRB pension kicked in.

In another sense I do definitely wish I had worn the hearing protection I was issued EXCEPT WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY DRIVING DOWN THE TRACK. A good part of the hearing loss I sustained was completely unnecessary. My hearing was tested recently when I retired, but I was not awarded disability because I could compensate so well. It was due to my musical training, and because I spent 13 years trying to hear everything on the radio.

Everybody is different, but natural sounds like a steam locomotive, or sitting among 27 other violins in front of the brass and kettledrums, do not hurt my ears. What DOES are screeching electronic feedback or triggered bass, anything that somebody can just turn up with a knob to vent the full force and fury of public service on my ears. Diesel locomotive turbochargers and air horns are in that sonic meltdown category, too.

Wear all your safety gear, not just hearing protection.

Hugh makes a good point. Try the the different plugs for musicians and find one that works best for you. I use them when in the cab. I wish I had them back in the day, though. As an aging rock musician, I’d give almost anything to get rid of the annoying, high pitched whistling tinnitus I have now.

Well, I've done plenty of bar band gigs playing drumset --- but that drum stool is usually the quietest seat in the joint because it's behind the PA. I never used earplugs, because I could control my monitors or ask one of the players to point their cabinet away from me a bit more if it was too loud. In these small clubs, a lot of time the guitarists or singers would be lined up along the front of the stage, with my crash cymbals right behind their heads. I can see why they might need earplugs.

ANY hearing protection you use is better than nothing.

Another potential way to go is something like this:

https://www.earplugstore.com/combat-arm ... tion4.html

Which are apparently the new version of:

3M E-A-R ARC Double-End Welder Ear Plugs

The Arc welding plugs I use have a solid plug on the one side and the other side lets more sound through.

I have no connection with any of those firms.

Brian

These work well for me in a diesel cab: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PacatoEarPlug--daddario-planet-waves-pacato-full-frequency-earplugs-universal-fit. I hear the radio and cab chatter just fine. The horn and cab mounted bell are much more tolerable. They’re hi-fi and only 12dB attenuation so you shouldn’t miss anything or feel too isolated.

I am curious.

Since locomotives are always turboed now, do they pose a greater risk of hearing loss, despite the insulation of the cabs?

I'm looking for facts here about the level of noise at specific frequencies. Unless you are a physician, I am not soliciting an opinion.

I wasn't able to find a link to a report from the past 10-years, but this FRA report from 1970, studying noise levels in a LIRR C-420 and a SLSF SD45 provides some of the detail you are looking for -

https://railroads.dot.gov/elibrary/sound-environment-locomotive-cabs

Between Rock & Roll, Firearms and my RR career my hearing has definitely taken a hit. First time I was doing a hearing test for a recertification of my Remote Control Engineers license the tech says “Has anyone talked to you about your hearing loss?”
Of course at that time I didn’t believe him. 5 years later, it was obvious even to me. When I started in 1980 Safely Glasses, Hearing protection & the like weren’t requirements. Sure wish they were back then.

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After a lifetime of loud music and loud trains, both as a fan and employee, my ears scream at me most of the time, and if I had it to do over, I would definitely have been far more faithful in my use of hearing protection. Just a word of caution to the upcoming generation.

I'm not a physician. This is yet another opinion:

No doubt there are many causes for "tinnitus", and this advice may not work for everybody, but it worked for me. When I started with BN in 1979, running locomotives inside the building was allowed. At times we might have 80 units onhand in Denver, with maybe a fourth of them inside the diesel shop and roundhouse. Most of them were running, and at least 2/3 were turbocharged. EVERYBODY had to shout all the time, and this continued after I went home, as did the ringing in my ears.

Fortunately they did away with running motors inside, and my "tinnitus" got a whole lot better. However it didn't go away. What I noticed was that if I obsessed about it, it got worse, so I decided to try ignoring it. It went away completely as soon as I left the Class I life, but I'm still deaf as a stump 30 years later (but too stubborn to wear hearing aids).