Around 20 trains an hour passing back garden - everyone saying "you'd get used to it" - would you?

[DecisionTime123]

Been to see a house where I knew there was a trainline, the garden is less than 30 foot long and about 5 foot from the back fence is line A, then another (say) 15 foot away is line B. I suspect line B is the Gatwick express but don't hold me to it. Anyway, I knew there'd be some noise but thought let's have a look. In the 15 minutes we were there at least 6 trains went through, sometimes 2 trains at once - one on each line. The "express" train line was slightly higher than the other and that was quite loud. I've checked the timetable and I think the 20 trains is a good guesstimate, and it would be going around 19 hours a day.

House had lots of other thing we really wanted, but honestly, could you get used to it? We've been looking for ages so I am feeling a bit suspect at friends saying nah that'll be fine etc. (edited to say I suspect this as everyone is fed up of hearing me going on about the house search!) Also I wonder if the noise would affect the dog, again there's no way of knowing. Any thoughts?

10 trains an hour here plus “the yellow train” about 100ft from where I sit. love it

We’re under the flight path and back onto a train and tube line and don’t notice. Only time I do notice is if it’s quiet and it comes back.

only thing I will say is that visitors do notice - so if you have a lot of people who come and stay, bear that in mind

Run don’t walk….

Never in a month of Sundays could I get used to that. And even if you do, when it comes to selling - nightmare

Friend lives near a railway and she said you don’t notice it after a while. It becomes background noise

I like backing onto a trainline - it means we are not overlooked from the back of our garden at all. We dont notice the trains - maybe the odd heavy diesel or steam train. They are doing works on the line so it has been a bit noisy at night but this is unusual.

One of the sounds on DD1’s white noise machine is a railway line! So a lot of people must find it comforting too. There is something about hearing a train go past when you’re tucked up in bed. It’s hard to articulate but it’s like everything is okay, the world is carrying on as you go to sleep, everything is as it should be.

Also it’s made no difference to house prices here at all. Houses on our street sell for the same as the same houses (literally the same houses, it’s an estate by same developer) on the other side of the village with no train line. I remember when we viewed it asking the owner if the trains were a nuisance and she gave me a kind of baffled look. After a couple of weeks living here, I understood!

Yep you’d get used to it. I’ve been living by a busy railway line for the past 4 years and I was surprised how quickly I stopped hearing it

I grew up living next to a train line. We never noticed them unless it was a diesel or freight train as they were louder. We were used to the electric trains. The one thing to note is overnight noise when they work on the tracks. They erect floodlights and do noisy track work .

You do get used to it , same with being under Heathrow flight path - when people came to visit they’d say how do you handle it but I’d stopped noticing quite quickly

I don't live there now as we moved to another area of the uk , but I lived near a mainline to London from Colchester .
We were about 6 narrow gardens lengths away from it and during the day I did learn to shut it out .
It was also a regular route for container trains to the ferry port of Felixstowe that would run overnight 2/3 times during the night . That did take quite a long time before they stopped waking me up but I eventually wore ear plugs to cancel it out .
I lived there 10 years .

I got so used to it as a child I now struggle to sleep without the background hum and my current and last house have railway lines nearby. The current one is right at the end of the garden. It's a bit marmite with resale but is also why we can afford to live in the area. The only thing that is a bit annoying is there's a freight train that does throw in the early hours and we do get more noise and vibrations from that. Again we mostly sleep through unless we're having a restless night anyway

@DecisionTime123 one of my friends has a busy railway line which is elevated up an incline more or less at the end of her garden! When she and her family (including 2 small children) go on holidays abroad they all miss the sound of the trains whirring past as they say it calms them and helps them to sleep well! If her DH has a stressful day at work he looks forward to going home and ‘listening’ to the trains going past especially in the summer when he sits out in the garden with a beer and chills out to the sound / rhythm… this could possibly be white noise related? The sound isn’t loud, it’s quite gentle and my friend is convinced it got both her children sleeping through the night early on as babies.

Basically if you love the house and it’s not easy to find a house that’s got everything you want then this is a small compromise. Also did you know that train enthusiasts / train spotters will pay way above the market value for a house like that if you ever decide to sell in the future?

Those of you who live on a flight path, or close to an airport, how do you stand the smell? I used to regularly stay in Horley and the stench of fuel every time a plane went over the garden was horrendous.

We have 8 trains per hour and barely notice them. The garden is 160' though. The worst thing is the level crossing at the bottom of our street.

We are under the LHR flightpath, and it's fine. It used to be noisy when the planes were louder.

Did I mention being near the M25? We are 1km away, and this is the worst of the three. It's because there's a constant hum, which is really noticeable if you are sitting out in the evening.

Son is in student accommodation in Exeter
it’s next to a goods train line with one train an hour and he can’t wait to get out.

Yes, both passenger and freight, don’t notice and it’s a busy line

I used to live in a 1st floor flat that was about 10 feet to the railway Bridge. Literally couldn't people's facial expressions sitting on the train as in line with it and would get my friends to text when passing so I could wave. Totally got used to it after a month or so. I am a heavy sleeper though. I think if I was a light sleeper it may have been a different story. In the day it becomes background noise. Like working in a hospital with the machines, you just kind of block it out.

Download the signal box app to see how frequent they actually are. Personally I’d love it. Friend has a train line at the bottom of her garden and where she is they’re not noisy, no cutting either. She says she never notices them.

I've always lived close to train lines. It will be fine. To be honest, I'd rather live next to a train line than a bunch of people with multiple cars like my neighbours.

Cars are far more antisocial than trains IMO.

I'd see if you can go back in the evening/nearer night time and see how quieter it is?

Much better than some kid bouncing a basketball / dog yapping / footballs over your fence every 5 mins.

I would love that! I'm looking for a house at the moment, but since you mention the Gatwick Express I suspect this one is a tad far for me to commute to work (I'm oop North) 😆 If I had a railway line outside my house I'd sit by the window any free time I had and watch the trains go past.

I know people who live close to train tracks and they don't notice it. I'm sensitive to sound so would find it stressful! It's bad enough with plane paths above which drive me mad. It all depends if you're OK with outside noise and trains are loud. Xx

I used to live on a main road - no front garden, just a paved bit and a railing, and it was a listed building so we had ill fitting, single glazed, sash windows. 6 buses an hour went past, there was slow moving traffic and the occasional traffic jam. Didn’t notice it after a week or two. That said, I have a friend who lived under the Gatwick flight path and she never ever got used to it. They had to move before she vacate psychotic.