Do you live in a house near a railway line?

[Wigeon]

If you live in a house near a railway line, how much does the noise bother you? Selling our house and just looked at a house less than 150m away from the town's main railway line, with regular trains passing. There are trees between the house and the line, but it did seem pretty noisy in the garden (and in the house if the windows were open). There's also a main road nearby with a constant hum of traffic. But the house itself was really lovely and ticks pretty much all our boxes!

Do you just get used to it? Or does it both you, especially at night, or in the summer if you are trying to enjoy your garden?

We lived in an apartment with a railway and a major highway at the end of a short street. We got used to the noise, but there was always a fine black dust over everything all the time and up my nose

I lived in a house once that backed onto the railway lines coming out of Wimbledon (so pretty busy). We got used to the noise and didn't hear it if we were just pottering around the house or watching TV. I remember being in the bath and watching the bath water tremble as the trains went by. And once a train got stuck on the track at night and woke us up for ages, but generally it wasn't too bad and didn't bother us.

This is all really useful and interesting, thanks for all the replies! The consensus seems to be you get used to it. The house also gets traffic noise from some busy roads nearby, although that’s more like a constant hum (plus sirens…) because it isn’t the exact road the property is on. So that’s not ideal given there are also the trains.

You can’t actually see the trains, because of the trees in the way, although the DC are now too old to want to wave at trains!

😁 Not the same place - although the town is vey near the M25, M1, has a ring road, various A roads (but not the A1), so there are plenty of houses near some kind of traffic noise…

We stayed with a friend once when that was happening on the railway near her (totally different part of the UK to us) and OMG it was absolutely awful! Incredibly loud banging by some kind of massive machine, and she hadn’t mentioned it before we went to bed, so we kept waking up and having no idea what was going on!

My daughter lives in a lovely cul- de-sac backing onto a railway line. After a few weeks you just get used to it and hardly notice it.

I miss it. I've lived in two, one right next to the line.

It's so romantic and evocative. I mean visitors thought we were mad and things used to fall off the walls. But there's nothing like the sound.

I love right on the railway line. Doesn’t both us at all. Definitely get use to it. I find it quite comforting.

inly really nuisance is when planned over night work kicks in and it’s loud drilling all night. But we just put the fan on in the bedroom and it blocks it out.

A tube line is at the bottom of our garden. In fairness it's about 200 metres from our house so not that near but we rarely notice it. Although we did the first night and thought we'd made a huge mistake.

It's noisier in winter when the leaves fall on the trees on the embankment.

The local train station is only a few minutes away from me. The houses on my road back on to the track. My house is on the bend found so the trains don't get past my garden. It's a busy line, about six trains every hour.

Honestly, it is absolutely fine. A bit of noise for a few seconds every now and again and I don't think the noise is particularly dislikeable.

I would live in a house that backs on to a train track but the only thing that puts me off is if there are no trees and the people on the train can see right into the garden.

We used to live 10 doors up from a train station, we loved it. Always used to take DD train spotting. You get used to the noise.
The only issue we found was rats. Where we lived had sort of a back alley with access to back gardens and because it was the way to the train station there was a lot of rubbish.
Oh, and it's kind of annoying when they're doing work on the line at 2/3am but it only happens every so often!
We are actually looking for another house near a train line because we loved it so much though :)

I lived near a busy line, where the underground went above ground, in London, but I didn't have a garden and couldn't hear anything with the windows closed. I didn't even notice the trains after a while, usually people who came to visit noticed but I never did.
There's sth called the psychology of sound and there are studies about this. Loud high-pitched sounds that are stop and go, stop and go, drive the brain crazy e.g a poodle barking here and there, the brain will notice. Trains are (usually) a steady sound and not very high-pitched so the brain gets used to it and stops noticing it, there's rhythm to it. A highway would be less of a problema than an urban road where people honk here and there. The brain doesn't know when to expect the loud pitch so it gets upset, the brain won't rest because it's waiting for the noise to come again without surprising it.

I have a railway at the end of my garden. The first train is at 6.50am, it never wakes me.

Me too.

inused to look at a website that were houses for sale on/near train stations etc, but it just made me SO unsettled here I had to stop drooling over them!!

we used to have a busy rail line going past the end of our garden, I loved it.

I dream of living near a pretty viaduct with steam trains!! Maybe when I retire...

amazed by the responses but I’m a bit of a crap sleeper anyway. We lived about 30 metres from a train line and it drove me absolutely bonkers. Couldn’t have the windows open when WFH as you couldn’t hear your calls. Excellent in hot summers. Couldn’t sleep with the windows open either as so noisy. We had triple glazing. Slow heavy trains going past at late/early hours. And when they would do works/cutting back the trees they would go along slowly in the middle of the night (I guess as no trains running) and chop and saw and bang metal and basically drive me to distraction from sleep deprivation. Would never ever ever live near a railway line ever again if I can afford not to.

I don't live near one but I just did a house sit for someone whose garden backs on to the railway line.

After the first few trains I barely even noticed them and I slept like a log! Car noise and traffic is much more irritating and noticeable to me.

Ditto here, branch line, four trains per hour, they hoot as they go past as there's a level crossing near by. I like it, it sounds friendly

triple glazing (...) drive me to distraction from sleep deprivation
Wow, even with triple-glazing you could hear it? Here I was, thinking you could survive WW3 with those! I stand corrected!

I live about 200m from the east coast main line - barely notice it.

And I really enjoy seeing them go past!

I love watching and hearing the trains which pass a couple of hundred yards away from our house - especially when they whistle 😊

I’ll tell you how much you get used to the noise so that it becomes literally a non issue…….it’s only reading this thread that I’ve realised that I’ve lived near train lines at least six times (I promise I’m not joking). Mostly in East London - over the underground tube line twice - Bow Road and Bethnal Green - bit of vibrating and rumbling, not much tbh. At the end of a terrace next to the rail line from Cambridge into Liverpool Street - only really heard on rare occasions at night when it was otherwise quiet and windows open. I’m a Victorian terrace in Bow that had the main Southend to Liverpool St line literally at the end of the garden - this was the closest I’ve lived and only occasionally do you stop and ‘notice’ it after the first few weeks iyswim. Buckhurst Hill with the Central Line going very near the back end of the garden although there was a wood between them so although it was there it was never an issue. And now, even though I live in rural Kent, I’m within a ten minute walk to the train station and the live runs parallel to our property, about 200m away - I literally never think ‘oh I live near the railway’, never, ever hear it.

I've lived near a local line railway, very near, trains every half hour. Didn't bother me, noise came and went, nothing at night. In some ways it was reassuring.

But I couldn't live with the constant hum of road traffic. The relentless drone unsettles me.

I live near a busy station. I don't really notice the noise, I think you just end up blocking it out!

My parents do and have a local station on the York to Leeds line at the bottom of their garden. There is vegetation, fence, footpath, fence and a bank of earth to act as a sound barrier. You get used to the noise. There are odd times when a diesel goes past and if I’m on the phone to them I have to wait a little until it’s gone past. They get steam trains going past and they go out to watch them.
It was really handy to catch a train for work, to university or to the airport when I lived at home. On an evening the local trains come in and out really quietly. Express ones are through within seconds.
There are odd times when there are rail works on overnight where they check the rails and add ballast and that is noisy but only for about 20 mins, until they’ve gone past. They write to you in advance to let you know but It’s actually quite interesting to watch from the upstairs windows at my parents, if it’s in the winter when the trees have no leaves. You tune out of the railway announcements and my folks have a number to contact out of office if there are any issues, like the tannoy being left on. It rarely happens. The benefits for my folks outweigh the negatives.