Does a railway line at the bottom of garden put you off buying a house?

[poppetmum]

I'd be interested to know views as we've seen a nice house, but this is what is making me unsure. It has 100 ft garden and would have 4-8 trains passing an hour (suburban). Most other houses in the street have large trees/shed at the end to help. I'm just worried it will be too noisy in the summer, or am I worrying too much??

[Beetroot]

we ahve lived in two houses with trains at the bottom of our garden

kids loved

house did shake a bit

no worse than cars though

[Volkl]

Some friends of mine have a house that backs onto the tracks, and its much closer than 100ft. They tell me you get used to it, and to be fair they have huge cargo trains passing at 3am and they say very quickly you totally ignore them.

[NatalieJane]

When I was about 7/8 years old, we lived in a pub (literally my Mum and Dad ran it!) it was right across the road from the train station, and the trains used to actually come out of the station through a tunnel that ran under our house, it never bothered any of us. In fact, I think we wasted many hours just sat waiting to see which train would come next

[littlerach]

As a stuedent I lived almost on a railway line.
After the initial adjustment, it was fine.
But you do need double glazing.

Where we live now, there is a railway line 2 field saway.

We are also under a flight path for huuuggee raf plnaes, the hercules (think??) that fly so low you can see th epilot (slight exaggeration!).

It'll be fine!

[CeilingCat]

I wouldn't be put off at all. I actually really love the sound of trains, so it might even be a positive selling point for me!

[foxythesnowfox]

Our garden is about 80ft I think.

You can't hear the trains from inside.

If we have friends over and are having a barbie or entertaining in the garden its generally at the weekend when there are fewer trains anyway.

The children are out in the garden and not worried about it.

It is precisely because there is a trainline at the bottom of the garden that we have such a big garden.

If there's land at the back, between the back wall and trainline, you can get rid of all your green garden biodegradable waste over the back wall. Not that you should. Probably.

If your back wall falls down the train company might pay to fix it.

Don't let it put you off!

[poppetmum]

Thanks everyone - I'm feeling a lot more positive about this than I was 5 mins ago!! Foxy, yes it's exactly because of the rail that there is such a long garden compared to what we'd normally ever get.

[mazzystar]

It would put me off - I think some people can just block it out or get to the point where you jsut don;t register it any more, but I am not one of them
But as beety says no worse than a busy road
Go and hang out in the garden for a while

[CrushWithEyeliner]

You won't ever sell it on - normally people hate this
Also there is more probability of Foxes and rats

[Beetroot]

sold both of ours really easily

[VacantlyPretty]

Message withdrawn

[sagacious]

My mum and dads old house had a 100ft garden then the main London out to Essex and beyond line (so trains every 5-10 mins at peak) I loved it, you could sometimes with the goods trains feel a slight shake but apart from that.

We did have the nuclear train go through at 3.am that would wake you up (plus helpful anti nuke campaigners put paper bags through the door with helpful hints on what to do in case of an accident IRRC

1.Put bag on head

1. Kiss your loved ones goodbye

The pedant in me always wanted to tell them it should be the other way round otherwise it would be a very rustley and crap kiss but hey ho

(sorry for the off topic tangent)

[CeilingCat]

sagacious - ROFL

[policywonk]

I grew up in a house that backed on to a railway line (busy suburban commuter line), and you really do stop noticing them after a while. Mind you, we were also on the flight path to Heathrow. If you have Concorde going over once a day, and jets every five minutes, trains seem like small beer.

[piratecat]

me and ex dh bought uor first home, with railway at bottom of garden, about the same amount of trains as u mentioned.

It didn't bother us a bit, as it meant we had lovely trees growing there, and a fox who visited our cat

It was actually a conservation area, and i much preferred it to being backed onto than another row of houses.

[GrapefruitMoon]

Think train noise easier to get used to than car traffic.... providing it is not high-speed trains (friends once rented a house backing onto such a line and it was very noisy). My dad grew up in a house literally next to the railway line - grandad was station master.

My only concern would be if I had very "adventurous" children who might be inclined to try to climb over the fence at the end of the garden...

[UnquietDad]

Does anyone remember that scary film "The Finishing Line" from school days? "The Railway Children" it is not.

[UnquietDad]

It was one of those "public information" films from the 70s - about the dangers of playing near railway lines.

[suedonim]

It wouldn't put me off, with a 100ft garden in between. As others say, unless it's high speed trains, you'd soon not notice them at all and I'd far rather live near a railway line than a busy road.

Also consider, when you travel by train, you see plenty of homes backing onto railways; they haven't all been deserted by their occupants so lots of people can't mind being near a railway.

My primary school had a railway line at the end of the playing field and summer terms, when we were allowed on the grass, were fab, because we could wave to people on trains.

[MascaraOHara]

4-8 trains an hour is a lot I think.. that's at least one every 15 minutes.. I think the amount of trains would put me off.

[sparkleymummy]

Personally I wouldn't buy a house that backs onto a train line. The noise aspect would bother me and you never know when the timetabling will change and you could end up with more traffic that you thought.

Unquietdad those films were seriously scary. The electricity pylon one was terrifying.

[Dottydot]

I'd love it - we've nearly always lived where there's a train line at the bottom of our garden and it's lovely. You don't notice the notice after a very short time and it's kind of comforting I think.