What’s it like having a train line at the end of your garden?

[booboo25]

we have had an offer accepted on an amazing house which is everything we wanted as a family, so much potential, great area, fantastic schools, close to our jobs, family and friends, a perfect forever home. BUT at the end of the garden runs a busy train line with trains going past every 3-5 minutes. The garden is 40ft and then another 30ft of trees until you reach the raised train tracks, which is a double line. We have viewed the house twice and been back several times at different times during the day and the trains vary in noise but are all gone within 3 seconds and it’s back to being a peaceful and quite cul-de-sac. I didn’t think too much about it at first but now things are progressing I can’t stop worrying about the train noise and if it’s going to cause problems for us when we move in. I am really interested to know for those of you that live with train lines at the end of your garden, especially at this frequency, what it’s like living with it every day and if maybe I’m blowing it out of proportion?

I lived right by some train tracks at my old flat.
honestly after a little while i didn’t notice the train noises- they just blended into the background.

Yes for the first few weeks you'll hear EVERY train and wonder how you'll ever cope and then magically you literally won't even hear them. When I lived beside a train line there was a particularly loud train about 30 mins after my bedtime and I thought 'thats it, I'll have to stay up late every night until we move' but in no time at all I didn't notice that one either.

Triple glazing would be something you could consider in the unlikely event you didn't get used to the sound. But if I did, anyone can.

We don't notice the noise at all now, we did lose a cat to it though so may be something to keep in mind.

Thank you. What about maintenance at night?

My SIL lives with train tracks at the end of her garden and has lived there for over 40 years and loves it. Often the advantage is a long garden.

There isn't any mainly.
Once they did the trees around the area and they told us it would be through the night but we honestly didn't hear anything

I’ve always really wanted to live somewhere with a train line at the bottom of the garden.

People told me you get used to it but I never did . My whole house used to shake though so I was probably closer . I could tell the different trains by the vibrations. Had the odd steam train go past which was interesting. Could never have the windows open in the summer .

I guess it depends what line you’re on.

I'm about 50m from a railway line in my current home and have been wakened once in 10 years by night time maintenance. I'll be honest and say I thought my own house was being demolished, such was the noise. No idea what they were doing. I get a lot of neighbour notices from Network Rail through the door but have never heard another noise at night at this distance.

I'd be worried about people peering into my garden or windows as they're passing by!

But as a commuter it’s great 😄 I love looking at the houses and the gardens as they pass by.

You can’t actually see the train from the garden as there are high fences and trees, you just hear the noise

I lived next to a busy line in zone 2 London and never noticed the trains.

There was night maintenance sometimes. The first time I heard it, I had no idea what the noise was and thought the world was ending. 🤣 Once I'd worked out what it was I just found it quite exciting in a weird way. Yes it woke me up, but it was over in a 5 minutes and I went back to sleep.

I have lived backing onto railway lines twice - one we were backing onto the West Coast mainline and overground. But we were above them. I didn’t notice it at all after a while and engineering works weren’t frequent or problematic. The second was a smaller line and they were closer and the same height, slightly more noticeable but less frequent.

Don’t do it!! Lived with the frequency of trains and set up at the end of the garden you describe.
You do get used to it indoors…. However in warmer weather when the windows are open it was a bloody nightmare. So loud. Constant. If we were out in the garden you would have to pause the conversation every time a train went past…we counted once… over 20 times in 20 minutes, including freight trains.
The house was a nightmare to sell. However amazing the house is you will never get over that noise. The feeling of relief when we moved out was immense. There’s also a massive difference between noise from electric local trains and high speed diesel and freight trains.
Oh and the engineering work at night… we ended up having to move out during one particularly long series of works.
Run, do not walk away from this house!

I don't think there will be a problem, with the distance and trees. You will notice the noise at first then screen it out. Much better than living near a busy road and safer too. Less pollution.

We had mainline railway, the station was in our road, and a motorway a short distance in the other direction. The motorway nearly drove me mad but the trains I loved. There was a freight train passed by every night about midnight, I would listen out for it. This was also in the days of slam door trains and oh how I missed the sound of the doors slamming as the commuters came home when they were phased out. (the doors, not the commuters)

When I was a teenager we lived in a house with train tracks running past the bottom of,the garden. It wasn’t a big garden, either, and the train line was lower than the garden. As others have said, after a couple of weeks you won’t notice it at all - we never did. And as a young person, I liked it because when my father came home, we’d stand and wait for his train and he’d be leaning out of the window to wave to us.
(edited for typo)

We lived with a railway line at the end of our garden & rarely noticed anything. I don't remember there ever being any maintenance at night.

We now live quite close to the same railway line. We can't see it because there are tall trees in the way and, again, rarely hear anything.

I love it. My house is in a very similar situation except we can see the trains through the trees. I grew up in a house with a rail line behind it and I find the noise very soothing. You notice it when you first move in them you become accustomed to it over time. Now I only notice when the trains stop. Christmas Day always seems too quiet. It’s worth checking the speed of the trains though because if it’s a high speed line then they might sound their horns sometimes.

I lived near a train line and some trains used to make the windows vibrate.

We face a Trainline - same as pp - panicked the first night and was like - omg what have we done but now we don’t notice them at all. Maintenance can be really noisy in middle of night but it’s only a few times a year and usually get a letter with warning .

ours is an electric track and no long distance or cargo use it - may be something to check as some tracks and lines will be noisier than others x

Depends on how you sleep

my friends live near Sandbach which is a very busy line. The day time trains aren’t that bad but the night time freight trains shook the house and woke me up

my depends on how sensitive to noise you are

I live behind a raised train track, I actually like it. They aren’t loud and they only run every 20mins or so, they stop around midnight. My main bedroom is on the other side to the trains so I don’t hear them all all once I’m in bed. Or in the house at all even, I just might catch a glimpse washing the pots or whatever. They don’t bother me one bit, when I see a cargo train or something new it’s quite fun even haha !