Zac Mahaffey, left, and Shane Smith, right, put up signs along the railroad tracks alerting traffic to the quiet zone that goes into effect in Newberry on Wednesday. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

People in Newberry had a chance to sleep better overnight with the start of a quiet zone there at midnight.

The quiet zone means an end to the blowing of train horns through that section of the city.

The process of developing the quiet zone took three years and involved the city, Joint Rail Authority of SEDA-Council of Governments and the Lycoming Valley Railroad.

Each time a locomotive approaches a public crossing, the train engineer must, by federal law, sound the horn to give advance warning of the train’s approach, according to Mayor Gabriel J. Campana.

That does not have to happen in Newberry any longer, according to John Grado, recently retired city engineer who worked on the project.

Since March 29, the rail crossing at Depot Street has been closed off to motorized vehicles and pedestrians, according to Campana.

A four-quadrant gate and signal protection system was installed at Arch and Howard streets, he said, along with a safety surveillance camera system.

Signals and gates from Depot Street were relocated to Mill Street in Montoursville, Campana said.

Grado said he was grateful to complete the project and joked some people might have liked the train noise, as he was told, because it was soothing at times.

Others, including neighbors nearest to the tracks, attended public meetings and their displeasure with the train noise and potential hazards of crossing the tracks led to the solution of a quiet zone, Grado said.