Would you buy a house that backs onto railway ..

[Locationvshousevsgarden]

Just that really! Looking to love and finally found something we like but the railway is 6 metres away from back garden boundary... mature trees but you still hear and can see a train every 20 mins. I am not sure so looking for advice... do you live in a similar house? Do you regret it? Would you buy a house backing on railway ? Help !

Agree with this. I’d take a train line over a main road any day of the week.

Yes I would I've lived next to a railway line and I loved the sound of the trains but they weren't high speed they were coming into the station i found it a soothing noise

Personally no I wouldn’t buy it.

Interesting what do you mean re ttc and trains ? Not the point of the thread but wanted to understand further

No.

I've lived that close to a train line and it was fine - you really do get used to it. I've also lived (around) half a mile from a motorway - never again to that!!!

You must be able to hear it in the house. Maybe not with normal background noise but if it’s a quiet summer night and you’re sleeping with the windows open you will hear it. I’m a third of a mile from a train line and we hear it! Not that it bothers me, it doesn’t, and it isn’t that loud, but unless you’re hard of hearing I think you’re kidding yourself that you won’t hear it in the house.

As for buying the house yes maybe so long as the line wasn’t elevated and passengers couldn’t see me!

Depends on the length of the garden and speed of the trains.

I wouldn’t, the vibrations would shake the house to bits.

What does TTC have to do with it? If you have a cat that would be a worry but what would be the issue for a human baby? If you mean pollution aren’t most of the trains that go into Waterloo electric with only the ones that go Exeter way still diesel?

Long garden and slow trains three times an hour won't bother you.
I would never live next to a dual-carriageway.

We previously lived in a house right next to the train line. Trains going into Euston so I guess every 20 min or so.

It was a new build, the train line was at the end of the garden, which wasn’t huge.

We never had an issue. You don’t notice them at all after a while and even when we first moved in they weren’t that noisy anyway. Certainly no problem sleeping with open windows etc.

We moved after 8 years, nothing to do with the train line but needed an extra bedroom. Sold the house to the first viewers inside a week of advertising.

I have done, it was totally fine. You don’t even notice the trains after a while. If it’s a great house, go for it.

I wouldn’t necessarily be put off. We have a train line at the end of our garden and it’s no issue. We get trains every half hour until near midnight then nothing until around 6am. We even have a train depo about 10 houses up and we get the trains shunting down the line in the evening and some horn toots along with that but I find the noise quite relaxing cause they’re moving so slow. We have trees, brambles etc on the edge of the railway so we can only see the trains in winter when the leaves are gone. It means we get loads of wildlife. We had fox cubs in the garden last year, we sometimes get deer, I get woodpeckers on the bird feeder. The positives far outweigh any negatives, and I couldn’t even come up with much of a negative…I guess you hear the trains if you’re in the garden or the windows open, but I don’t mind that. I can hear the main road which is much further away and far noisier!

Oh sorry 😞 spell check. Rats

I once lived in a house very close to a train line. The first couple of nights it was awful but then we got used to the trains and barely noticed them in the house. However it was noisy in the garden, and the worst thing was when they had to do maintenance because that was incredibly noisy and always took place at night.

I’d be too tempted to do weird shit to make the commuters suspicious like in Girl on a Train

Just remember, it isn't only publicly timetabled trains that use a track. There will be freight trains at all sorts of times of day and night. Overnight engineering works involving floodlights, noise etc. I would ask one of the neighbours to the property what sort of activity they are experiencing.

That said, many moons ago when I was very young, our house backed onto the railway line. It was steam trains at the time. Us kids got used to it and got quite excited when the embankment occasionally caught fire from the sparks from the train and we watched the Big Boys jump the fence to stamp them out!

I still feel a sense of pure nostalgia over 60 years later when I hear the whistle of a steam train and the smell of the engine smoke as it passes by...

I lived in the back bedroom of a terraced house overlooking a main railway line. Looking on Google Earth it was 18m from my window. I was told by the previous tenants that you get used to the noise. I didn't believe them. You do in fact get used to the noise. I would rather live backing onto a railway line than under a flight path (done both!)

I'm currently sitting in my garden which backs onto a 30mph rural road. It's more noticeable than the railway for sure.

We back onto a railway and are under a v busy flight path and it’s fine. You get used to it. You will be valued lower than houses that aren’t though but as long as you’re ok with that.

My cousins used to live backing onto a railway. They had a massive garden. However they had a constant rat problem.

We are on a busy Waterloo line. The ‘normal’ trains are fine, we are also 6m away. The freight trains are loud but they don’t come past that much.

@Bitzee I suggested the OP investigate IF living near a train line could have any above effects TTC because I don't know the stats or if there is any effect at all. I already said I lived above a tube with an overground nearby. All health checks were normal for DH and myself, but but we TTC over 10yrs and lost 3. We were between zone 1-2 so maybe the air pollution had a baring or possibly none at all. I don't know, but going back, I wish I'd investigated if living near a train line/main road/central London pollution could possibly have any impact.

I have one and no never again!