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've lived next to a London railway line and now have a tram line at the end of the garden. Neither is any disturbance at all. I work in a garden cabin literally a few metres from the tram but I don't notice them any more. Traffic on the bypass half a mile away is worse.

Mainline railways do have occasional night maintenance but it shouldn't be more than once or twice a year. You just might want to check if there are a lot of heavy freight trains or it's a whistling point where they have to toot. But you'd have noticed that in your visit.

It’s just such an amazing house and area, houses rarely come up for sale in the area as it’s so sought after, would seem such a shame to pull out because of the trains. Most of the feedback I read is we will get used to it but you just don’t know until your there do you… ahhh I don’t know what to do!

Speak to the neighbours, absolutely. I'm surprised people don't do this before buying houses anyway.

How frequent are the trains and how fast?

we don’t hear it anymore. We have a station too and very occasionally I can hear the doors opening but I have to be really listening

I'm super sensitive to noise and can only sleep in complete silence, but I grew up in a house with a garden backing onto a trainline and the sound never bothered me. My ears physically heard them passing by but my brain didn't notice if that makes any sense!

Rented a place with an overland part of a tube line at the end of a reasonably long garden. It was fine with double glazed windows/doors shut, but impossible to sit outside. We had to pause conversation every 2-3 mins as trains went past which got annoying. You’d never get used to that.

My grandparents house had this and I remember fondly waving to the trains as a kid. The noise didn't bother him or us.

I live now near Heathrow Terminal 4 and occasionally hear planes but not that of a nuisance. Helicopters sometimes going over my house on the other hand really winds me up as they are so damn loud but I digress....

On a different note, I feel sorry for those living in London, whose homes back into tube tracks when they screech.

I think you need to establish what time of trains they are. Electric or diesel? Commuter or freight? What line is it? A provincial line is different to the West Coast Mainline for example. The difference in noise depending on this will be huge.

We have! They were so lovely and said they absolutely loved living there and the benefits massively outweighed the train noise which they are completely used to now

I liked it. Lots of wildlife and birds. The cats would bring in slow worms which had sunbathed on the sleepers. Noise never woke me up. And you know there won't be a housing estate built there.

That would be a yes from me then!

My friend's short garden backs onto the train line. I usually notice the first two trains, then forget about them before I've finished my tea.

Do you / will you have kids?
Their hearing is / will be more sensitive than yours.
Daytime passenger trains are nothing compared to nighttime freight. Much much louder. Sleep disturbance in childhood can have long term effects on development.

It's absolutely fine. After a short while you just don't notice the trains.

Years ago we lived in a new build house with a rail track at the end of the garden.

I remember when we moved in applying to the council for a reduction in the council tax because of the close proximity of the line - that was a " thing" in those days. But we were told the line wasn't near enough or busy enough for the reduction.

It wasn't a busy line. There was more freight trains than passenger. We got a little bit of noise from maintenance at night.

My son was a baby when we moved there and he absolutely loved seeing the trains and counting the trucks on the freight trains.

So it was a really positive experience apart from my poor cat getting killed by a train on the track.

I think even if it had been a busy line we would have still liked living near the track but we are " train" people - really interested in them.

So I'd definitely buy the house OP if you like it and the area.

There’s a train line at the bottom of my garden and I barely notice it. We are right behind the station platform so they are going very slowly as they leave and enter so all so hear is the gentle whining noise of it taking off or vice versa. Occasionally at night, around 10.30/11pm, a fast train whizzes through and so I hear that while I’m reading in bed but I sleep with earplugs anyway and it’s never woken me up if I’ve gone to bed before then. Honestly you won’t notice after a few weeks unless it’s a high speed or industrial rail I would imagine.

We have a train line at the bottom of our garden. TBH, after a few days of moving in, we hardly notice the trains.

These are standard suburban commuter trains. There are 8 per hour.

We have noisy night maintenance maybe once every 2 years, and they give us notice.

The worst thing is the level crossing at the end of our road, which dictates what time we leave the house to avoid it. I have the train timetable imprinted in my head (but I'm a nerd).

On the plus side, I like that the bottom of our garden is completely secure.

I have a very busy train line right infront of my house. When we first moved in I thought it would drive me mad but after a while we don’t hear them anymore. We still hear the night sleeper (Glasgow to London) and the diesel trains.

The maintenance can be a nightmare in the summer if I’m honest as I like to have my windows open when I’m sleeping but it normally only lasts for an hour or so.

I can beat that! We have the train line at the bottom of the garden, are under the Heathrow flight path, and a mile from the M25. Trains, planes and automobiles!

The worst of the three is the M25 where there is a constant hum 24/7. You can detect it in the day, but if sitting out late at night, you can hear it.

I had the district line at window level to my bedroom at the end of our garden for a few years when I lived in a house share in my 20s. It didn’t bother me at all as it stopped 12-5am. I never heard it but I was a lot younger!!! And less fussy

Grew up in that sort of location. It was a very busy line as well. The downside; any work on the line was quite loud and usually done at night. They did write and give us notice. Also it was all diesel then and we got quite a bit of dirt through windows.

However it’s much better than living near a busy road, the trees muffled the noise, and we had foxes and badgers living on the embankment.

These answers are so interesting. Almost all saying it doesn’t bother them. I used to live near Heathrow and again you really didn’t notice it. Seeing planes go over when in bed was lovely and comforting.

Seeing Concorde back in the day going over was fantastic

We live on the other side of the tracks from a station.
Electric rail line. Only 4/6 trains an hour and all stop, so slow down/accelerate.
I hear the first train go out if our window is open
I quite like the sound.

Yes - when I lived in an old cottage, goods trains going past at the end of the road made the house shake. Airplane noise bothered me much more than the trains. We often had foxes playing on the railway tracks at night.

I live fairly close to a major railway, but can't hear much besides one or two freight trains, which run pretty infrequently.

The amount of noise you'll get is partly dependent on the type of traffic that runs on the line. If you're able to tell me the nearest station, or roughly where it is, I'm enough of a geek to tell you how noisy the trains will be. Modern electric passenger trains are fairly quiet, but diesel freight trains will make a hell of a racket, so it depends on how many of those you will get. Most lines don't routinely operate 24/7, though, so you're pretty much guaranteed to get quiet nights. It's all rather more predictable than road traffic.

I love trains so the noise doesn't bother me at all - I find it far less of a problem than the constant roar of traffic, and you won't get much pollution - trains are pretty eco-friendly these days.

Network Rail go out of their way to be responsible neighbours as well, they give you plenty of notice if they plan to do anything noisy.