Help! Perfect house next to railway line

[PinkPomelo]

We have found and reserved our perfect home. Great area, we have one little baby who is 6 months old and it's close to a primary school and has everything you need. It is about 200 feet from the east coast main line and I'm not sure what to do. You get a slower train once or twice an hour, high speed intercity trains once or twice an hour, and the odd freight each day and neighbours said the odd freight about 1am but generally all trains finish about 11pm.

Not concerned about hearing it from inside, but we expect to have windows and doors open a lot and you'll hear jt from the garden. You do have to stop talking a few seconds until it passes.

Google overwhelmingly says you get used to it, but perhaps these are people that didn't mind living next to a railway line when they bought their place. Noises do annoy me! But train noise isn't as bad as cars, other than the freight ones.

Anyone got any experience? It's a 10 year home for us, dh is fine with it so it's on me! Alternative is wait for another build ready in the estate, further from the line. Likely would be more expensive or same price and slightly smaller.

My mum's house adjoins a railway line. There aren't intercity trains but there are slower local trains and faster non-stopping trains at least 6 times an hour. Plus freight trains.

We really barely notice them, even in the garden which we are out in a lot. It's only annoying if you happen to really want to hear something that can't be repeated for the few seconds the fast trains are actually passing.

Intercity trains are louder but also quicker - so the noise would come and go faster too!

My parents chose that house deliberately out of the ones they were looking at, because embankments for railway lines are undisturbed corridors for wildlife and biodiversity, which appealed to them, and are also secure because no one can access your property from that side.

I would recommend going for the house if everything else about it suits you just fine. At least with trains they run to a timetable. It's not like a busy road where traffic noise is more constant and more unpredictable.

I live near one hated it never got used to it and it was a nightmare to sell
can’t sleep with windows open and freight trains are VERY noisy
at night they seem twice as loud
and at that type of distance you will feel vibration of freight trains

agreed the small trains are no noisier than a car or lorry

We had a house near a train line - 1 freight train a day, and 2 intercity trains an hour, but last station on the line, so going very slow

You do get used to it, but I wouldn't do it again and it was a nightmare to sell

I wouldn’t with a young child. Trains may stop at 11pm but your baby will go to bed around 7pm and you won’t be able to have their window open for bedtime or naps in the day which will be a nightmare in summer.

I am not sure I'd get used to it and I wouldn't buy this house if I had a choice. But I suppose it depends on how much cheaper it is and how much you need the space. You'd have to sell it at as a discount , how much would this worry you?

The garden of the house I grew up in backed straight onto a busy tube line and train line into central London. I don't remember thinking about it though I did dream about trains from time to time. Certainly I zoned out to any noise they made.

Current house is about 200m from a train line into London with 4-5 trains per hour. No freight trains though. Honestly never heard those either.

Have you been to the property when the trains are going past?

What is between you and the train line?

We are closer than 200m to a (branch) line. There is a row of houses, plus their gardens between us and the line. And then another house - ours - before the garden. It's only noticeable if you are sitting in a peaceful house. Vans outside on the road are noisier!

It will reduce the value for both buying and selling, plus make it harder to sell, as your pool of buyers is smaller. On the plus side, there is a station really close by, in our case!

Opps, just re-read your post. We will be further than 200ft.....

I live right next to the end of the line, so lots of trains coming in all hours of day/night and we got used to it so quickly. Occasionally you’ll get a squeaky brake which is a bit like nails on a chalkboard and you notice but other than that I’d not know that we were so close

As a student I rented a room about the same distance from a mainline. I couldn't get used to the disturbance at night, but had no choice but to stay, as I had signed up for a year. I was very glad to move when I eventually could. I am easily disturbed at night though.

I lived next to a train line for a while. But we were next to the station so they were going slow. Also the house had a high degree of insulation (triple glazing) to keep out the noise. I also found it helpful to distract my son "oh look a train".
The one thing the neighbours won't have warned you about is the engineering work when they re-embed the track in the middle of the night. Which is very noisy with bright lights. But that only happens every 18 months or more.
I would expect to get a better house for less in such a location.

As well as freight trains, engineering work is also completed at nighttime. The disturbance this causes will vary depending on if there are vehicle access points nearby onto the railway. It won't happen lots but one to be aware of .

I love trains and I’d love to live close to a railway line. I do think you’d get used to it.

However, if it’s the east coast main line, you’ve massively underestimated the number of trains that will pass. It won’t be 2-4 hourly. The majority will be the higher speed trains from London to Scotland. There will be lots. You need to go to the house and spend an hour there to see how many trains there are and how noisy and intrusive it would be.

Also, the freight trains can be very noisy and they run day and night. Yes, they’re less frequent, but they run daily. I live around half a mile from the railway line and I still hear the freight trains rumbling along, particularly so at night.

Remember that the only reason that you can afford to buy this house is because it is near a railway line.

Any other houses which are in your price range which do not have such an issue will not be perfect like this one.

If you are uncertain about the railway line then so will other purchasers be when you come to sell so it will take a lot longer.

I lived near a railway line once (not as near as you) and it was lovely. I like that kind of noise.

We once stayed in a hotel close to a railway line that had engineering works. Couldn’t sleep at all and course it wouldn’t happen often enough for you to get used to it. Do remember that when it comes to buying a house, it’s location, location, location.

I lived opposite the Paddington line. I could see the passengers faces as they passed by from upstairs. You get so used to the sound that in the end you really don't notice it unless there is an especially loud train. I also lived under the Heathrow flight path (we had full double glazing). You get used to that too!

We lived vlose to one, just our garden, a small.coppice then a field to one. You really do get used to it. Traffic/people were noisier. In current house the railway is much further, but if they hink their hirn/have squeaky brakes I hear it more as we live in a much, much quieter place. Like I've had to check the window is actually open at night, it's that quiet.

When it came to resale of the house near a train, it dis put some people off. But most people really didn't mind,nit was the outskirts of a small city, so noise is expected.

Check if the line is used for freight. My Dsis and my friend both have flats near train lines and the only ones that are annoying are the super long freights in the middle of the night.

I love next a rail way line and love it! You don't really notice I find cars more annoying and it's a cult de sac! You tube it out unless you listen for it.

We grew up 50ft from the west coast main line and I can confirm you get used to it. The nearer you live the better as it comes and it goes quickly. The further you live away you hear it coming, it passes and you hear it leaving. You'll be fine. Good luck

Presumably she’s buying at a discount though.

I’ve just remembered that I rented a flat very close to a railway line in London. The flat was in a collection of buildings so there was some barrier between me and the line but I barely noticed it.

Take a look at www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Search for your nearest station then take it from there. You’ll see trains currently running, including freight, and can look at previous days and times. You can look at each service to see where it’s going from and to, which company is running it, even what particular model of train it is. You can then look at what’s passing closest to your house and, more importantly for you, how frequent they are.

My house is perpendicular to the line, so I'm the 4th house away and it's a newbuild so not worried about inside. Not sure what it'll be like inside with windows and doors open though, so hard as it's not built yet. The garden is four gardens away from the line, so a few fences between you and it. I've been out all day every day for 3 days now trying to work out how much it will bother me!! We know we want to live there and have waited for them to come up and it's so disappointing it's not the best plot. If I've wondered this much, buyers surely will too.

Because it's still a building site it's hard to gauge as there's so much noise.

We have a bin lorry comes at 6am on a Friday and that annoys us as that's you awake. So I'm imagining a freight doing the same.

I've thought about waiting for one further in but as someone said you do actually hear them for longer a but further away. But it's not deafening and doesn't stop conversations. I actually wondered if it'd bother our dog as he hates fireworks.

I’d be amazed if all trains finished by 11pm. I e been on a train on the main east coast line after 11pm. I’ve also caught trains about 5am