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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to consider moving near a busy railway line

36 replies

whoneedssleepanyway · 19/09/2011 10:45

this isn't really AIBU but want some opinions.

a house has come up near where we currently live, it is more than twice the size of our existing house, 4 bedrooms, needs completely renovating so could be amazing, we can afford it, DD1 can stay at the school she has just started as it is only 1 mile away.....but

It is at the top of a cul de sac and there is a busy railway line that goes past the top of the cul de sac. We are talking a train every couple of minutes, some are quiet but there are some noisier ones. There are two houses between this one and the top of the cul de sac so you aren't the closest to the train line but pretty close.

I just can't decide if this is a deal-breaker and am really torn. We would never ever normally be able to afford a house like this in the area we live in at the moment but due to condition and the fact that it is by the train line we can. It is other than that a very good location.

DH has put off and put off moving and I know the real reason is that he doesn't want to move away from our area and we have never thought we could get a big family home round here, this is the first time he has seriously entertained moving as a possiblity.

Does anyone live near a busy railway line, how do you find it?

OP posts:
RedHelenB · 19/09/2011 13:12

Why not ask yo0ur potential neighbours for their thoughts?

Floggingmolly · 19/09/2011 13:28

Our last house had a railway line running past the end of the garden. It didn't disturb us at all, in fact we stopped even being aware if it very quickly, but we found it horrendously difficult to sell, purely because of the potential noise. Maybe you should factor that in?

Original poster
whoneedssleepanyway · 19/09/2011 13:30

Flogging, that is DH's issue, he is concerned we will find it hard to sell.

But this house has already had two offers on it both of which fell through, one because they couldn't get the mortgage and one because they couldn't sell their existing house....so people do seem keen to buy it.

OP posts:
Andrewofgg · 19/09/2011 13:33

I once lived on a very, very busy main road, heavy lorries 24/7. Not only did I get used to it; when I moved somewhere quieter at first I couldn't sleep without the noise.

So you'll get used to it. Go for it.

OTheHugeRaveningWolef · 19/09/2011 13:34

I live about 200 yards from a train line and barely notice it. That said, my line is only local (Greater London) trains and so it's more of a rumbling than that wailing shrieking sort of noise you get with fast trains - and they don't pass at night much. I used to get the Eurostar passing, which was loads more annoying as they were much noisier and sometimes used to stop outside my bedroom window and let French businessmen stare at me in my pyjamas Hmm

Maybe check out the route of the train line? See which trains pass, what kind they are, whether there will be much traffic at night? It could be a fairly trivial thing that you'd get used to, or something you'd regret for as long as you owned the house...it really just depends on the line.

RedOnion · 19/09/2011 13:34

I have lived very close to major railway lines twice in my life, the last time my garden was virtually backing onto the lines. After a while you honestly stop noticing the noise at all.

It wouldn't put me off for a second.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 19/09/2011 13:37

Wouldn't worry me in the slightest. I've always lived by a railway line. In two houses I lived in I had the railway on one side, a busy A road the other and we were under the Heathrow flight path.

Now I'm a bit further away but I can hear it at night if concentrate. I really miss it tbh. You cease to notice it and yet it becomes background noise at the asme time.

I'd be onto it like a shot!

worraliberty · 19/09/2011 13:41

My MIL's flat is actually on the side of a busy London railway line. You can sit in her lounge and see the tops of the trains as they speed by.

She rarely hears them now and with good double glazing, I doubt you will either.

MackerelOfFact · 19/09/2011 14:18

You'll get used to it. PILs live next to the East Coast high-speed train line and their 'house' (more of an outbuilding which they bizarrely live in - a whole other thread) has no double glazing and a corrugated plastic roof - you don't notice the trains, and the gentle 'click clack' is actually really soothing at night.

MackerelOfFact · 19/09/2011 14:20

Oh and I would take a train line over a high street any day. And in fact will be doing exactly that in 2 weeks time - moving from a noisy high street to somewhere which backs onto a train and tram line.

Cretaceous · 19/09/2011 14:31

I wouldn't worry about the noise. But I would check with the neighbours about why the sale has fallen through twice.

We recently pulled out of buying a house (in the very early stages) because it turned out there was a planning dispute with a property developer who'd bought a plot nearby. It only came to light because we went to ask the neighbours about the train noise...

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