Say you were in the market to buy a house and a railfan. Would you buy a house right next to the tracks,, or want to be 1 block away or 1/2 mile away. I'm sure a busy yard might not be a good place to live near if you are a light sleeper.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
Me and my wife just bought a house about a 1/4 mile away from a crossing,we both dont mind the horns(i kinda like them)This summer with the windows open will be the true test.
Boyd Say you were in the market to buy a house and a railfan. Would you buy a house right next to the tracks,, or want to be 1 block away or 1/2 mile away. I'm sure a busy yard might not be a good place to live near if you are a light sleeper.
Dan
I live roughly 200 feet from a short line. In fact, I write this, there is train coming from the North. The way I know is because of the crossings and the horns.
Will
I would probably go into the market for a vacant lot, and build my own house - preferably on a slight rise overlooking the busiest rail junction/classification yard I could get next to.
Between berming, multi-layer sound-attenuating wall and roof construction and good interior accoustics, it would be possible to hold a conversation in whispers while a multi-unit diesel was leaning into its loaded unit train 25 meters away.
The best part is that, since no one else really wants to be that close to the action, the land could probably be had at considerably less than the average price for a similar parcel in a quieter area.
Of course, if the house was a typical thin-wall wood frame tract house, you'd have to pay ME to take it off your hands...
Chuck (sometimes amateur architect)
I have always lived near them. I have even built a house on old roadbed ( cant get much closer but I think you meant LIVE tracks lol) Right now I am about 1/4 mile from our mainline to Savanna/Marquette.
If in the market I would live a little closer as it doesnt bother me.I might not want to live near a yard ( most yards are in industrial areas anyway and lets be honest not a very desirable location for a home) but near a main line doesnt bother me. Having grown up close to a railroad I can sleep when a train rolls by as its natural to me.
Yes we are on time but this is yesterdays train
I would not mind living next a branch line with a low speed limit (and probably nobody riding the freight cars). But I would not want to live closer than a half mile from a mainline due to haz-mat, see the Kingman BLEVE thread, and the fact that some rather bad people hop freight trains (Rafael Ramirez for example).
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
the only people that ever jump on my trains was guys riding with coolers and they didnt mind giving you a cold beer on a hot day, ( now how can you call that bad) but would i buy a house close to the tracks NO!!! I want to be as far from them as i can be I want no noise anymore and if the crickets get to loud ill get the poison out and spray.
YES! I have lived along the BNSF for many years.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
BoydSay you were in the market to buy a house and a railfan.
Say you were in the market to buy a house and a railfan.
Maybe the railfan is a closing bonus!
Lets see here 1/4 from the BNSF transcon 2 blocks from the BNSF connector with the NS ex conrail ex NYC and that passes less than a 1/8 mile from my back door. So I am in HEAVEN. All this action and I pay less than 550 month for a mortage insurance and taxes a MONTH TOTAL stay here.
In a heartbeat. And the busier, the better!
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
The real question you've got to ask in a situation like this is: "Do you really want your kid's to grow up to be railfans?" Look...my mother's parents lived about a block away from the LIRR Jamaica station and my mother and I stayed with them until my father returned from WWII. By the end of 1946 my parents purchased a house about 200 feet off the westbound main line of the DL&W RR, less than a hundred feet above the tracks and quarter of a mile west of the junction of the Boonton Line and the Morris and Essex Line in Denville, NJ. To top that off, my fathers' parents lived in Dover, NJ less than a block from the CNJ Hibernia branch. All this exposure to trains while and kid and you see what it did to me!
P.S. I wouldn't buy a railfan either, they are cheaper to rent and you're not tied down. They are also reportedly useless for getting work done around the house especially in a timely manner..
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We currently live about 1.25 miles from the EJ&E main and about 2.25 miles from the BNSF main in Aurora, and that's plenty close enough for me, thanks. As much as I love my trains, I also love my sleep and peace & quiet at times. A good mix is what I have right now and that's just fine for me.
CShaveRRBoyd Say you were in the market to buy a house and a railfan. Why would I want to buy a railfan? Most of them would gladly come along for free!
Boyd Say you were in the market to buy a house and a railfan.
My railfan came along free, to start with. That changed with time. Our next anniversary will be golden.
And she was the one who found the house that had the only steam-powered rail line in suburban Tokyo right over the back fence...
Chuck
I lived my teen years about a half mile from what is now CSX's Saginaw Sub. In its day, it was a busy line. The town I lived in had 4 crossings in less than a mile, with three in the "just stay on the horn" range. I didn't mind a bit.
Like many here, I consider a train horn music, so I think I'd do just fine near a line.
My daughter and her husband just bought a house near a little-used CSX line here in NY. She called me after they looked at it to see what I knew, which was that it's not all that busy. I think busy would have been a minus for them.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Once lived next to the NYC mainline west of Buffalo. There was a crossing nearby so lots of horns. The only time I lost sleep was when they were on strike and it was quiet.
I might do it again except for one word: RESALE.
I live about a 1/2 a block away from UP's Geneva Sub, but several miles from any grade crossings. I really don't mind the trains. I can look out the back door and watch the trains go by behind the wood fence along the right-of-way. Also a couple of GEVO's powering out of the Kish River valley with a heavy coal train make for a nice sleep aid. Heck I thought the earthquake earlier this week was just a train going by.
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Got to agree..Wife and I, bought the worst conditioned house on the block; she found it on the Internet.When we got here we found we were about a quarter mile from (MP226 on BNSF Emporia sub) the double track main. The only time it gets a little trying is in the early moring when a couple of trains meet, at first the noise was a little obnoxious, but after awhile it is kind of comforting, and not nearly as noticeable. I had never lived near a line with as much activity, and speed as there is through here.
Heavy rail - no
Light rail - maybe; I would have to look at it first.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I spent my entire childhood in a house only 100 feet from an Illinois Central mainline in the days of steam. You get used to the noise and don't even notice the trains after a while.
I'd go a house in a rural area 300 to 500 yards up a nice rise from the tracks, with an open view.
But a house with a backyard up to the ROW? Forget about it. The idea of an errant box car sitting in my kitchen has no appeal.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
I already live 150 ft from the Norfolk Southern line in sims il. I sleep right through the trains.
My parents just bought a house one block from from a old conrail line up by paris il.
During my two years in grad school at BGSU in Bowling Green, Ohio, both apartments I lived in were along the Conrail main through town. The first apartment had a street and empty lot separating it from the tracks, but the second apartment was in a complex right next to the tracks at a crossing. While I got woke up during the first couple weeks up there by the trains at night, I eventually got to where I was sleeping right through the trains going by or getting woken up and going right back to sleep. The second apartment was most enjoyable since I could feel the trains coming through.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
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Growing up, my grandparents, then an aunt and uncle lived about 100 feet from the Michigan Central Air Line. During the late 50's, I also lived there for awhile, shortly after the rebuild, that turned it into a high speed race track. Had another uncle that worked that line as head-end brakeman out of Jackson Mi, so when he was on the train, during daylight, we got the horn. Along the road I never heard anyone complain about the trains. Even the cows quickly adjusted and weren't bothered by the trains.
I sure would!! My next home will be as close to the tracks as possible...years ago I rented an apartment right next to the tracks in Montreal..The whole place shook when a train passed through...I really miss that..
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