Trains going by

[BeignetPommes]

I live right next to a railway line. There are many freight and passenger trains go by at 20 minute intervals. Passenger trains only during the day, but freight trains throughout the night. I was fully aware, when we bought the house, that there would be trains going by day and night.

But I really love hearing the trains going by. They never wake me up if I'm asleep.
But if I'm having a wakeful night they are very lulling. The tickety boo is more
likely to make me sleep than wake me up. I just think of the driver who is taking freight from the east to the west coast or something. He's awake. So am I.
When I hear a freight train going by at 3am I feel like somebody else is also awake. I don't sleep well generally but I sometimes wish I was sitting next to the driver and going somewhere..

@ North Yorkshire coast not the US! We have a potash mine here, though I think the potash is all gone and now they're mining salt instead. But everyone still calls it the Potash Train.

I live close to a railway line, but it’s just old underground trains. I don’t notice it but DM was staying and she said she could hear a toy train set going off at night. It’s just that they have to whistle just out of the station.

Yes I used to live pretty much next to a railway line and found it so soothing! It becomes almost background noise after a while. They would never wake me either.

It felt a bit eerie in covid when there were less trains running.

I get what you're saying. But count your blessings you're not located in the US as the freight trains there are loud enough to wake the dead their horns are blaring so loud. When I was living in CA a visiting family member complained he couldn't sleep at my place - a good five miles away and uphill from the train line!

North Yorkshire coast not the US! We have a potash mine here, though I think the potash is all gone and now they're mining salt instead. But everyone still calls it the Potash Train

Ok, apologies. I'm Yorkshire too so I'm kicking myself. Leeds is pretty much as far away from the coast as you can get.😕

I live near a few different train lines. I love the different sounds. As so many of you have said, it’s soothing, it reminds me other people are also awake when I am in the early hours, and I’d far rather have train noise than road noise.

I live in a quiet tucked away part of the town centre and clearly hear the trains throughout the day and night
I find it comforting and soothing

When the DC were young, we lived near a railway station. When DH got home from work, he took them down to a gap to see the trains. The DC used to wave at the trains, which obviously were going very slow either into or out of the station. Many of the passengers waved back, and occasionally the drivers did too. It used to be the highlight of their day.

I feel quite teary remembering that. They're both in their 40s now.

There are some YouTube videos taken from the driver's cab which I find soothing to watch.

I grew up 100 yards from the midland mainline. I quite liked seeing the train. Only issue was track maintenance at 3am as it was very loud. Live near a beach line now and had forgotten about it's existence.

I completely vetoed a house last year that my DH loved, purely because the train line was at the bottom of the garden… reading this thread I’m kicking myself and even listening to your descriptions is making me feel peaceful!

It's horses for courses though. It would have been a huge plus for me.

But don't have any regrets. All sorts of other things could have gone wrong.
Next door could have had noisy cockerels, or they might have got 2 XL bullies.
or a trampoline outside your back window.
You chose right for the both of you.
We train track afficionados are a rare breed.
If you really want to live next to a train track it won't be hard to make it come true.

I find it comforting and soothing

This sums it up for me. I love the sound of trains going by.

I live about a quarter of a mile, as the crow flies, from the main line between Bristol and London. I love hearing the trains in the night and sometimes we get a steam train like the Flying Scotsman go past.
I'm also soothed by aircraft noise. I grew up very near to Filton where concorde was built and I could hear the planes taking off and landing plus the sound of the hangar doors being opened if I left my window open. I now live below the approach to Bristol Airport.

sarsaparillatree

Thanks for the link. Sends a shiver down my spine. I've been on some overnight trains with my dad. Many years ago. Maybe that's why i find it so soothing.

Me too!

The train line runs past the end of my garden. I love it! I love the sound of the gears changing as it slows down and then sets off again. The predictability of it. It's so soothing and calming.

I just love it

I also love the sound of people returning home on the late night train when I'm in bed.

Just the sound of happy people spilling out on to the platform, laughing and chattering. Such a wonderful sound when I'm in bed!

I don't even mind the one random drunk man who frequently wanders up and own the platform ranting at thin air. Makes me feel less alone in the world.

If the wind was blowing in the right direction I could hear trains pulling in or out of the station as a child.

I was highly anxious and had an over active imagination. I used to lay in bed worrying that everyone else in the world had somehow died. Then I'd hear a train and know that at least one other person was alive. I found it very comforting.

That's so lovely.

I think to some extent it depends what noises you are used to at night. We live in the countryside next to a farm with no streetlights around. My sister lives in a town on a busy main road. I don't know how she manages to sleep in her bedroom especially in the Summer with the windows open as it is so noisy and there is a streetlight right outside her bedroom. But she finds it hard to sleep when she visits me because it's too quiet and too dark! And then she says the noises of the farm animals wake her up in the morning whereas I barely notice them. I think we probably all find the noises that represent normality comforting, but "normal" is different for everyone.

I’ve always lived within earshot of a railway line bar my current house and I really miss it !

my last house had a railway line literally feet away from the end of my yard and like pps it had freight trains overnight which were so soothing. Loved hearing them and could set my watch by some of them !

I was highly anxious and had an over active imagination. I used to lay in bed worrying that everyone else in the world had somehow died. Then I'd hear a train and know that at least one other person was alive. I found it very comforting

Whilst I don't think I ever worried that everyone else was dead, hearing a train going by has always been a source of great comfort to me. And if I look out of my window, imagining the lit up carriages full of people (well, sometimes only half or a quarter full of people) I have always found very warming. Sitting and feeding my baby, yet still watching the world go by.

Lorries and cars just don't do it, do they?

I struggle with noise at night but I can imagine the sound of trains would be lovely.

It's irregular or unknown noises I Struggle with. So next doors gate squeaks like a motherfucker in the wind, drives me nuts. Or the other night there was an irregular dripping noise, I had to go hunt for it, turned out to be a plant pot I'd left too close to the shed.

But we've got wind turbines in the distance, and if the wind is in the right direction and strong enough, all I can hear is Whump Whump Whump, and I love it, it's so soothing.

Or if there's a big ship in the docks and it's go it's engines on over night powering it lights etc, it just feels reassuring.

I imagine trains would be the same. Its the sound of your area, and it just lulls you off to sleep.

I love listening to the trains too. I can't usually hear them in the daytime but at night, in bed with the windows open, I can hear their sounds from a few fields away. I can tell if it's an intercity or a freight, and sometimes if the track gangs are out, I can hear the drivers giving their warning toot toot.

Just leaving this link for anyone who wants to see live train maps:
https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps
Once you get your head round the layout of the maps (they are essentially a repeat of what the signallers can see in the controll rooms), it's really intersting to see where the trains are going to and from.

I rush up the big hill every morning to see the freight train go by. I'm disappointment if it's not running that day. I love freight trains. I look on real train times website to see where they are going to and from. I'd love to live closer to a freight line to be able to see them from the house.