Would you buy a house backing onto a railway line?

[jill5676]

We've seen a house we like, it's not perfect (small third bedroom) but nicely extended downstairs, doesn't need any work, has a big garden, it's in a good catchment area, just outside a big city, and it's close to amenities. It's an expensive area and we've been outbid several times. This one ticks most boxes but it has a railway line at the bottom of the garden. Two trains went past at viewing, it wasn't excessively loud but we could hear them. Obviously in the garden it would be louder.

In an ideal world, we'd not have trains passing, but it's hard to find something in this area as it's one of the few suburbs with excellent schooling. Would you/have you lived on a train line? For info, it's a single track suburban line with no freight trains but commuter trains passing every 15 mins from 6am-midnight.

I don't think overlooking is an issue.
As I said we are close to the station, so trains not fast at all.
When the DCs were small we used to try and spot our house from the train. We only caught a very fleeting glimpse and knew what we were looking for. There is no way you could have seen anyone in the garden, and certainly not indoors.
Again might be different if you were right next to the station, or near the points/signals where trains might be stationary.

It depends how close. I have 2 friends that back onto railway lines. One has a garden that’s about 75 metres long, and I honestly don’t think they even notice the trains and from the house you can barely hear them.

The other friend has a tiny garden, maybe 7 metres deep. It’s very noisy indeed.

I quite like the idea of hearing trains rattling by. I think the idea of being in bed in a quiet house with the rumbles of the world continuing outside sounds quite romantic and comforting.

We live just in front of a rail line and we don't notice them anymore, we did when we first moved in but not now.

I've lived 20meters
from a train line and half a mile from a motorway. Wouldn't do the motorway again but would have no worries about a train line. You really do filter it out.

No. I've lived somewhere like that before and didn't like it. But we're looking at buying a house at the moment and I'm sure everyone has different dealbreakers for a house.

Yes, I would love to watch the trains passing by.

I guess it depends how bothered by noise you are. Train noise like that wouldn't bother me at all.

I know some people feel their privacy is affected by commuters being able to look out of the window into their gardens, but this wouldn't really bother me either.

I grew up in a house on a busy road. My bedroom was at the front. When we moved to a new house I couldn’t sleep for a while without the traffic sounds!

A good friend has a house backing onto a railway line. The garden’s probably about 60 ft long. I’ve sat in her garden hundreds of times and can honestly say that very quickly you don’t notice it. Can barely hear trains in her house.

I would be concerned it might be difficult or at least slow to sell on.

Are there freight trains in the night? They can be louder and take longer to pass.

Also there is a chance the line could get busier in future.

Your children can be "railway children", waving to the trains as they go by! 😀

My mates house was right next to a really busy line that had tubes, mainline trains and freight ones all night. Her garden wasn't that big either.
Tbh after about a week I got used to it. The noise starts to fade into the background when it's something you've come to expect.
So I personally wouldn't say it would be a total deal breaker. As long as you've decent glazed windows!

We lived in a house like this as kids and it was fine. Quite enjoyed watching them pass. Noise didn’t bother us.

I would actually love this.

No - I’ve lived somewhere like that and lasted 18 months. Double glazing didn’t help as the line was so close. The early morning trains were a pain but it was the engineering works that did me. Three weeks of overnight works including pile driving. Zero sleep.

I grew up next to an airport and it’s true, you stop hearing it.

The only thing that would stop me from buying a house bordering rail tracks would be if it’s not my “forever home”. If I was planning on selling at some point as my family grew then I would worry about it being sticky and not selling as quickly as I wanted.

I grew up with trains going past the bottom of the garden. The only time I noticed the noise was if I was videotaping in the back garden and when I played it back I thought, what's that noise? Oh yes it's the trains. Otherwise I never noticed it at all.

No. I viewed a property once which had a (reasonably long) garden that backed onto a train line. Trains went past every few minutes (and would have done well into the night as well as throughout the day) and the noise was really noticeable. The agent tried to say trains weren't that frequent/noticeable, but the poor homeowner was honest and said, 'oh, they go by every couple of minutes...'

Allegedly, the sound and vibrations didn't bother the seller, but it stopped me from buying the place. So something to think about is not just whether you are happy with the noise (and check the impact frequent trains passing will have on the structure of the building), but how long you plan to be in that property, because it will limit buyers when you're looking to sell it at a later date.

Far better to be overlooked by trains which go past in a blink of an eye than by loads of houses whoze inhabitants could stare at you all day should they be that kind of people. Could you plant evergreen trees to give extra screening if it really bothers him?

It really depends, OP.
On so many things!
The railway line could be a problem, or just accepted happily.
Circumstances.

If he doesn't like it, he doesn't like it. I'm not sure I could be pursuaded either if I grew up on an island! I would worry about pets and children too. Plus when they clean the rails / do maintenance / have weird freight trains at night.

We would want to be in it ten years at least, maybe longer, though the third bedroom would be small for two teenagers. We have considered the fact that if we're deliberating over it, so would future buyers. Ultimately, there's enough demand in the area that I think it would sell but it's true it could be slower. I think without the line, this one would have sold already - houses around here go very fast usually. It's encouraging that most posters are happy with railways but interesting that one or two aren't - it's a lot of money to discover we are one of those people who hate it! I sleep lightly so the thought of night engineering is offputting. The main bedroom is at the front so probably okay but ofc there's no way to know how sensitive a future child would be to noise. Probably if they were there from birth, they'd just be used to it but it's a bit of a gamble. Appreciate all the help, not sure I'm any closer to a decision but lots of food for thought. DH might have to have the casting vote as he's more anxious about it than me and I wouldn't want to talk him into something and then it turn out he was right all along...

Passenger line that’s fast no issue, freight trains rattling through the night would be a no.

I wouldn't even view it. Lived in a house that backed onto a railway years ago and the noise early morning and late at night continually disturbed me so I don't agree that everyone can tune this type of noise out. It didn't bother me during the day though.

The privacy aspect would be a deal-breaker for me, I always have a good nosy into gardens when on a train and it sounds like it's a big issue for your DH.

If it's not particularly cheaper than other properties in the area then it's not a good investment as it will limit your market for resale in future.

You can't change the location of a house so you need to be really comfortable with these compromises, or be under time pressure to buy right now in that area from what's available.

Probably not, I wouldn't like to be too near the line especially an electric one. I don't know why it would just put me off. Saying that, I've seen many houses with gardens backing onto railway lines and the gardens are usually huge!