TIFFIN, Ohio — The city of Tiffin is not as loud as it used to be thanks to a special railroad project aimed at reducing the constant blaring of train horns as they pass through town.

It's a sound Larry Wilson has been hearing dozens of times a day for nearly 40 years.

“All I can tell you is when the trains go by, the horns are deafening, have been deafening for years,” said Wilson, a Tiffin resident.

On most days, more than 60 trains travel through Tiffin blasting their safety-precaution horns. But since July 1, those trains have been mostly silent and that's music to the 81-year-old's ears.

“You can sleep with your windows open, and you are not awakened every now and then with the train whistles that come through. It’s been glorious, no train horns anymore,” said Wilson.

Silencing the trains didn't happen overnight. Tiffin's railroad crossings needed to meet higher safety standards to qualify as “quiet zones". The city of Tiffin partnered with Tiffin University, Heidelberg University and a railroad company to find a way to pay for the solution.

“We have been working on quiet zones for probably the better part of 14 to 15 years in the Tiffin community,” said Mayor Aaron Montz.

Quad gates have been installed at several railroad crossings, curbs are in place to keep people from driving around them and a roadway improvement project now prevents traffic from backing up onto the tracks. 

“We were able to complete this multi-million dollar project by bringing all the players to the table and improving safety at all of Tiffin's crossing, while at the same time eliminating about 95% of the train horns in the community,”  said Montz.

As for Wilson, he's just glad he and others can now enjoy the silence.

“We sit here on our front porch with our neighbors and your conversations are no longer interrupted,” said Wilson. “You can sit back and enjoy things. You can watch TV. You can have conversations and you are not interrupted any longer with these deafening train blasts.”