The other scary thing is that the two main crossings here are the only "no horn" crossings in the state. Four gates, European style, so the train doesn't pull for the crossing. Which scares the heck out of me, that horn is one more safety factor.
Westbound we have good sight lines in both directions, but eastbound you can't see more than 50 yards up the track to the south and the trees are right up against the road to the north. So we listen with all our ears. Fortunately there's a crossing 2 miles north and another crossing which is NOT a no-horn crossing about 1/2 mile north, so you can hear a southbound train pull the whistle for the middle crossing. Thank goodness.
I've gotten to where I can tell from the sound of the diesel motors whether it's a slow or a fast freight.
As someone who lives near a railroad crossing, I'm not exactly a fan of the horns at 2am.
Why not have a signal light on the tracks before the crossing which indicates that the crossing is working correctly, along with signage: "IF LIGHT IS NOT FLASHING, SOUND HORN AND SLOW TO ___MPH."(*) I understand that if the crossing gates and lights aren't working the horn provides some safety factor, but if the lights and gates are working, I fail to see how the horn does anything other than add annoyance.
(*) That would be the simplest means of letting people sleep without adversely affecting safety. An alternative, if the trains on a route would be equipped with standardized "navigation" equipment, would be to have the gates communicate their status to the locomotive via wireless or other means. That could provide an engineer greater notice of a gate that could be expected to fail (e.g. because it doesn't have power).