Do you really want to live next to the tracks???????

[cstaats]

Sort of like the people who live next to the L in Chicago. You become accustomed to the sound. Sure as hell shocked the heck out of me. Though I find the sound of the trains in the distant nice.

[Hawks05]

i live 3 blocks away from the tracks right now. if the wind isn't blowing that strong i can hear the horn like the train is coming through my front door. its really cool. my room is upstairs and it sound really close when i'm up there. kind of nice to go to bed to. one of my friends' aunt and uncle live about 500 feet from the tracks. they have a little child i think she is 2 or 3 and they put up a playground thing behind their house. our town doesn't really have a slummy place or poor neighbor hood. but this house looks out of place. its the only one on the block. i wouldn't mind it as long as i can sound proof my room.

my mom lived right next to the tracks when she first started teaching. her house was no more than 30 feet away from the tracks i guess. the stuff on top of her frig would slide off whenever a train came through. she said it was really loud and hard to sleep the first few weeks but then she got used to it.

[Puckdropper]

If I'm going to live close enough to the tracks to hear the trains, I want to SEE them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (More Exclaimation points.)

I found the TWO places you can easily see a train (obscured) from Indiana Institute of Technology's campus... Sometimes, I like to just stop and listen to the music of the train horns (knowing I can barely see the train.)

[MP57313]

I like the idea of living out in the open, maybe 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile from the track but over on a ridge or some other place where one could see the trains.

Many years ago when house hunting in the city we looked at an open house next to the (then) Santa Fe Harbor Line. They had a binder on the coffee table showing news articles about the Alameda Corridor, explaining that train traffic would decrease. This was before construction had even started. Even though trains with tank cars passed by daily, IMHO the greater risk came from the "homies" who used the RR as a shortcut through the area. The graffiti painted on the RR property walls, with names crossed out, translated to "turf war". No thank you.

More recently, a railfan friend looked at an open house in Santa Fe Springs, right next to the main line. The first train that went by when he was looking was "ok, not too loud". But the second train, on one of the other main tracks, was a lot worse. There was a switch frog or low joint or some other thing on that track, and the train's wheels made a brain-jarring kaCLANK-kaCLANK, kaCLANK-kaCLANK for the entire length of the train. No way was he going to put up with that...

[Mookie]

In a heartbeat!!!! Even have the house all picked out! Just can't get the lady to move out of it! It would be kitty (got that?) corner from where I watch trains right now. I have my heart set on it! You can see just everything as it comes and goes through the BNSF yard! Just purrfect!

Mookie

[cherokee woman]

My paternal grandparents and oldest paternal aunt had a house down in Nolin, KY.
The train tracks were RIGHT behind the house. I remember us going down there
for visits. I'd sit out in the side yard and watch the trains go by. Being very little at the
time, it wasn't fun in the middle of the night when the trains went by all through the
night. THEN I didn't like the tracks being right next to the house. Would not mind it
now, though. And they were all frieght trains, too!

There should have been some passenger trains on their way to Nashville, but
I can't remember seeing any of them: definitely remember the freights.[:)][:p]

[Anonymous]

I guess the comment about living next to the tracks and gunshots must be an L.A. thing.

[Anonymous]

Recently, a set community of $235,000 townhouses were built less than 200ft from one of our interlockings in Maryland. Now, we run on the average 136 trains a day Mon-Fri, and, I bet those people buying those homes didn't have a clue. Most trains are running through there at 125mph, and, with an 80mph crossover. I can't believe the real estate developers didn't erect a fence to keep the kids from wandering over to the tracks. What a treat they're going to be in for when the undercutter and other assorted track maintainence machines work there --- at night! The sad part is, the potential loss of life for a child who happens to wander up onto the tracks and gets struck. There are other safety scenarios to consider, too, with kids....a kite that may end up in our overhead 11,000V and 138,000V power lines will conduct that power through the kite string. At one time, that area was just woods (a tree doesn't stand a chance now-a-days!).

[daveklepper]

If any of you have a problem with this, there are good solutions, with special sound-isolating windows, gasketted doors, etc. I think it is still the website www.nacc.org, for the national association of acoustical consultants, but it might be slightly different. The advise you pay for from a listed and certified consultant should be worth the money. Another organization is www.inceusa.org, the USA branch of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering. This latter organization has a Board certification program and a list of active noise control specialists with addresses and email.

Being in the main flight path of an airport can even be a more serious problem.

[Anonymous]

When you live there for a while, you will miss the trains when you not at home!

No joke. Friend of mine lives next to the MAIN-WESER-Line between Frankfurt and Kassel here in Germany - More than 100 trains each day will pass his house.

When he is in vacation - in the first night he is missing them. And when the line will be closed because of a derailment he wakes up because of the silence !!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

My favorite place of residence was the apartment I lived in during my senior year of college in Cleveland, Ohio. The apartment was a two-bedroom duplex, definitely not luxurious but very comfortable and cozy with wood floors, a high ceiling and a small deck. It was adjacent to campus, at the end of a side street in the safe and relatively quiet Little Italy neighbor, making it a convenient haven to the bustle of University Circle. It was also right beside three sets of double track.

Just down the bank were the electrified tracks of the RTA's Red Line, right beside them was the Nickel Plate with a dozen or more NS trains each day, and beyond it was the Cleveland Shortline and its 50-60 CSX trains daily. In my second-floor apartment, both my bedroom and the living room faced the tracks and I slept with the windows open in the spring, summer and early fall. On my first night there, I was awakened by every train, but after that I had no trouble sleeping right through them.

Ocassionally I'd have to pause a movie for a particularly vociferous train, but they were rarely a disturbance -- even to my roommate and our girlfriends, none of whom shared my interests. I always tried to guess the locomotives by their approaching sounds. Eastbound geeps on the Nickel Plate were the easiest, barking to beat the band on the grade out of East 55th Street Yard.

Following graduation in '02, I moved across town to Lakewood. The neighborhood is great and I'm enjoying an even bigger bedroom. On a quiet night when the wind is just right I can sometimes catch the distant wail of an airhorn, but I miss those trains going by my window!

Scott Lothes
Cleveland, Ohio

[locomutt]

I wish I lived closer to the tracks than we do. The tracks are 2 blocks from our house.
Would not bother me at all. Trains going by at all hours of the night would not
bother me: I wouldn't hear them. My mother used to say that I could sleep through
ANYTHING!!

Several years ago, we were under a tornado warning, and I slept through it: Paula
could not wake me up to go down to the cellar!! [:)]

[Anonymous]

I wi***hat I living at Oreapolis,Ne. right on the BNSF/UP Diamond.......Now you talk about NOISE! Just seeing a 16,ooo ton coal train slaming the Diamond rolling at 45 mph. would drive any city dweller just CRAZY!
BNSFrailfan.

[Anonymous]

As much as I would love to live close to the tracks, I would be worried about my son, dogs, neighbor kids, etc... wandering onto the tracks. The noise factor would probably blend in after a while. It would be cool to see trains go by every morning.

I like the houses in Rochelle that are right on top of that diamond there. There is a quaint little house right next to the UP crossing there. Now that would be the place to live.

[redflasher1]

I live one block from the BNSF north/south in a northern suburb of Minneapolis.

BUT, my office is 28 feet from the Wayzata Minnesota sub in Wayzata. I can look out the window and see the eastbounds very nicely at ground level. The building is between two grade crossings so lots of horns. Surprisingly, the building is very quiet inside(3 story brick). I have a scanner on my desk tuned to the BNSF road frequency 160.920 so hear a lots of chatter daily. Average traffic is around 10-15 trains a day. More at the end of the work week. I can stroll outside and railfan right next to the single track. I get some weird looks from the traincrews but I stay on our side of the easement line. Life is good.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MP57313

I like the idea of living out in the open, maybe 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile from the track but over on a ridge or some other place where one could see the trains.

Many years ago when house hunting in the city we looked at an open house next to the (then) Santa Fe Harbor Line. They had a binder on the coffee table showing news articles about the Alameda Corridor, explaining that train traffic would decrease. This was before construction had even started. Even though trains with tank cars passed by daily, IMHO the greater risk came from the "homies" who used the RR as a shortcut through the area. The graffiti painted on the RR property walls, with names crossed out, translated to "turf war". No thank you.

More recently, a railfan friend looked at an open house in Santa Fe Springs, right next to the main line. The first train that went by when he was looking was "ok, not too loud". But the second train, on one of the other main tracks, was a lot worse. There was a switch frog or low joint or some other thing on that track, and the train's wheels made a brain-jarring kaCLANK-kaCLANK, kaCLANK-kaCLANK for the entire length of the train. No way was he going to put up with that...

I know what your talking about, my grandparents lived in Florence three houses away from the SP mainline from LA harbor up to Downtown LA. I got to see trains every time we visited, walked over next to the tracks and see them up close, but I also got to see the neighborhood decay while growing up from one where you could walk down the street to the nieghborhood market, to one where you never left your property. Gang problem there got really bad there towards the end. First the african-american kids getting into trouble, then as the area shifted to latino, the latino kids would get into it real bad with the black kids. Sad commentary to make on the urban condition, but you made the right choice for your own safety by staying out of there. They dont care who gets in the way of there bullets...

Another thing to think about that no one here has mentioned,

Remember the City of Commerce Runnaway last year and the San Bernardino Cajon Canyon runaway several years ago...

Both excellent reasons why living next to the tracks is a very risky endeavor.

The City of Commerce runaway knock out several homes when they intentionally derailed the cars to prevent them from entering the yard, guess it was cheaper to pay for all those destroyed homes and properties than risk damaging their precious yard. They were just DAM lucky no one got killed..

Cant say that for the Cajon Canyon runaway that destroyed an entire neighborhood and killed several people..double tragedy was that the crash damaged an underground gas pipeline that ruptured a week later destroying the rest of the neighborhood. That was a nightmare if you remember the pic's.

...What if those trains had been carrying LNG, chlorine or some other nasty....

[rvos1979]

Don't forget about the derailment and LNG fire at weyuwega, WI in the early 90s, I think people were out of their homes for about three weeks. WC had to pay quite a bit for freeze damage caused by turning off the power to the town.

[Anonymous]

Just because it is urban doesnt mean it is always bad. Be sensitive. Everything doesn't always have to be gang related. There are some people here who may be of color who are railfans that might take offense to some of the things that are said. Railfanning is universal.

[Mookie]

Me again - the house I have my eye on isn't in the best part of town, but you know, it is relatively safe. My scanner tells me that there is really very little trouble in that area.

And....flying in an airplane is iffy - you may crash. Traveling by car is more iffy - you may crash. So as long as your paper person doesn't throw your paper on the railroad tracks, you should be ok living even as close as I would like. Kitty litter happens, but your odds are pretty good you will be ok. I will take those odds if I can live close to the tracks. And takin' Willy 2 with me! [8D]

[espeefoamer]

The house I grew up in was about 10 houses away from the UP main line.I saw both freight trains and Domeliners.As a 5 year old,I saw a silver and red passenger train that I found out years later was the GM Aerotrain running as the City of Las Vegas!!! I also saw the Big Blow turbines a couple of times.[:)][:D][8D][:p][:)][:D][8D][:p][:)][:D][8D][:p][:)][:D][8D][:p]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by daveklepper

I think it is still the website www.nacc.org, for the national association of acoustical consultants, but it might be slightly different.

Dave, the URL is www.ncac.com

Scott Lothes
Cleveland, Ohio

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I grew up about a block from the South Shore Line with the NKP main line and the CWI main (EL, MON, C&O) both on the other side of the South Shore's embankment (South Shore had an overpass over the other two lines). When you grow up with the sounds of trains all the time, you get used to them.

My current residence is about a mile south of the crest of Clearing's hump. That may seem to be a bit far but I can easily hear the howl of the retarders, even at that distance. Chicago Midway Airport is just north of Clearing, so we get the sound of commercial jets on their landing approach, too.

[locomutt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CSSHEGEWISCH

I grew up about a block from the South Shore Line with the NKP main line and the CWI main (EL, MON, C&O) both on the other side of the South Shore's embankment (South Shore had an overpass over the other two lines). When you grow up with the sounds of trains all the time, you get used to them.

My current residence is about a mile south of the crest of Clearing's hump. That may seem to be a bit far but I can easily hear the howl of the retarders, even at that distance. Chicago Midway Airport is just north of Clearing, so we get the sound of commercial jets on their landing approach, too.

Now, that's a good place to live!![:)]

[MP57313]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith
The City of Commerce runaway knock out several homes when they intentionally derailed the cars to prevent them from entering the yard,

Yes, I believe UP has reached a settlement with some of the folks. The intentional derailment was considered the "least bad" alternative, as the runaway cars might have collided with loaded tank cars or a Metrolink train had they continued on to the yard, according to UP statements at the time.

Meanwhile, the area we were looking at was the border of Torrance and Harbor Gateway...more tagger territory than gang territory, but I know what you are talking about.

Actually I thought vsmith's comments about the area were very accurate. It might be actions of a select few "bad guys" that make urban neighborhoods dangerous, but the danger is real. A middle-aged white guy with a camera is not always a welcome sight (they seem to presume I am a cop---I'm not).

I travel to the WashingtonDC area on business, and the local nightly news is strikingly similar to LA...the Anacostia River region of DC is similar to South Los Angeles, with "routine" street killings. Both have rail lines running through them, and there might be a few railfans there, but I don't believe railfans from outside the area would choose to live near the tracks in either of those locations.

[UPTRAIN]

I must be crazy, I built a house in 1998 about 100 feet from a heavily used track and about 1/8 of a mile from a crossing, I'm not that bothered at all by the noise, the grain bins near the house cause WAY more noise.

[Randy Stahl]

Sure I'd live by the tracks.... But not on the outside of a curve.
CSSHEGEWISCH I worked at clearing about 14 years ago.. has it changed much???
Randy

[ericsp]

LA area between the harbor and downtown? I'd think all of the gun fire would drowned out the train noise.

[rrnut282]

My current residence is less than 300 feet from NS's Fort Wayne to Cincy main. Only the heaviest trains rattle the windows. They only reason I can't sleep is I think I heard a train coming in the distance! It's cool to be watching TV or on the computer and hear dynamics or air horns, turn around and watch one go by. My only lament is the line is not as busy as it was before I bought this house.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Randy:
There have been some changes at Clearing. CSX now has an intermodal terminal along the south side of the west class yard and a small departure yard for CSX intermodals has been added to the south of the east departure yard. The hump is as busy as ever with hump cuts being pushed over the hump in both directions as a matter of routine.

As you're probably aware, motive power has changed greatly. SD38/slug sets push cuts over the hump and GP38-2's and MP15's are in pulldown duty.

Despite the changes, it's still an interesting place to watch trains.

[Anonymous]

Well, maybe not next to a main line no, but I could stand living next to a shortline. Maybe 2 or 3 trains per day, wouldn't be bad.