Anyone close to a Railroad?

The house I grew up in was about 100' from the tracks. It was an old general store with the upstairs converted into living quarters, and oh, that old building used to rattle when a heavy freight train rumbled by, LOL. But I grew up with it, so I was used to it. When we moved away, I actually missed it. Where we are now we can hear the trains in the towns south and north of us. Sometimes, I'll be on the phone and the train whistle will blow and the person I'm talking to says, "I thought you were at home - where are you? I heard a train!"

When we were young, we used the train tracks as our playground and as a shortcut from A to B. Not sure if kids can still get away with that or not -probably not, but something to consider.

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Thank you all for all of your responses.

I am not going to let the train tracks deter me any. I actually have this feeling after reading all your posts that I would want to find tracks to live by LOL. I once visited Wyoming for a week and they had those really long trains that went through hourly or less.. and I did find it comforting though I was several blocks away and not right there. I do believe I would love it.

If you buy it.. plant a hedge of tall, thick evergreens along th fence line by the tracks.. that way if you go to sell it the potential buyers won't really notice that much... but I wouldn't sell it ever if I were you.

I have lived by a railroad tracks for 30 years. Would I buy a place again by one. NO. My house always looks like no one has dusted it. White dust on everything. Actually shakes the house. Nic nacks will move till they will eventually fall off if I don't keep pushing them back. If I am on the phone I would have to ask the person to wait till the trains go by. If we are outside we can not talk to each other till it is gone. We can not leave the windows open at night because it sounds like the train is coming into the house.

When we first moved here there were just a few trains. Now it is a main route and there are trains constantly. At times it also messes up our tv. Trains will stop and cars are turning around in my driveway. And i have 6 dogs that stay in the yard and the driveway is part of the yard.

Nothing peaceful sounding to me to hear a horn blowing from one road to the next.

oh!! I love trains. My entire childhood (actually, until I was 22) I lived by RR tracks. One house had them as a border in the back yard. Still to this day I miss hearing trains as I fall asleep. You don't notice them after a while, it will actually take you much much longer to get used to NOT hearing them if you do move away.

I'm a couple hundred feet from a RR. Can hear it and sometimes feel it from the house but can't see it. Isn't a problem. Even the livestock have gotten used to the trains right next to their pasture.

Course you have to be careful when critters get loose!



Kathie

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I posted awhile back about the same concern.

What trains? I never hear them and I haven't even been here a month.

Jena

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It runs right through the center of our small town. Trains go by about 6 - 10 times a day and the biggest hassle to me is waiting for the freight trains to pass when you are trying to drive through town. As long as you don't get stuck at the light, you can drive about 1/2 mile out of your way and go over the tracks via a bridge, so not that big of a deal.

As for noise, we live about 3/4 mile from the tracks and you only hear it on certain cold nights where the sound really carries. It is a nice white noise to go to sleep to at that distance.

As they say, "Been there - done that"

And I have one word for you:

Don't

we have tracks about 130' from our house. We are not near a road so there is very seldom a whistle blowing (unless there is an animal or something on the tracks). we get about 12 trains a day. I love the rumble of the trains. when they are really heavy you can feel them. we love it! I was very worried about it before we moved.. but it's nice.

just depends, for us it's no biggie. but I dont think I'd like the whistle blowing.

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When I go to visit Mom, her house is right across the street from the track and a block away from the intersection with the road. So they are blowing the horn as they pass. I can sleep right through it most of the time. And if I'm up I enjoy watching the first dozen cars pass. Sometimes there are 4 or 5 engines and a hundred cars.

Where I live I'm about two miles from an old steam engine train and can hear the whistle many evenings. I can never hear the train, but it's nice to hear the old steam whistle. If the wind is right it sounds like it's just over the ridge.

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I don't know if you had a chance to read it or not, but I started a post in CS about kind of silly critera in your dream home. DH and I wanted a house near train tracks.

Our south border is the railroad and we are between two crossing, so we get to hear the whistle coming and going. It's about 600-700 feet from our house. I couldn't even tell you how often the train goes by because it's not something that bothers me.

I LOVE hearing the train, especially on a summer night when I have my bedroom window open. Of course, I'm one of those goof balls that will stand and wave at the engineers like I know them or something.

One very cool thing, some of the towns near by will have train rides on some weekends. The past two weekends the train that came by had an old time steam engine! It was so neat!

By the way, I have chickens, goats, horses, dogs and cats and no one seems to be bothered by the train.

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Anne
Give me a sweet home set among the trees,
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LONE PINE FARM
Barnesville, PA
Boer goats, Angora goats, Eclectic mix of poultry

I do live on the railroad line it is going by every 1/2 hour some times more some times less. i dont even hear it most of the time. oh its there within eye sight i just dont pay it no mind. at night i love to here it going down the track and blowing its horn.

Something else to consider. Hazardous Materials. There are incredibly toxic and dangerous things that are routinely transported by rail. While considering the sheer quantities being moved and relative the rarity of any large scale release it is something you should consider.

I'm 3.5 to 4 miles from the tracks but that could very well be inside the plume of a hazardous cargo that vented or burned in a derailment. Acids, Chlorine, Ammonia...all sorts of different chemicals are shipped by rail. Not to mention that eventually they will be shipping large numbers of nuclear waste casks to yucca mountain. Yes it is all relatively safe, especially the nuclear materials but there have been some derailments and releases of dangerous chemicals that required large evacuations.

Even though I'm as far as I am from the tracks I have masks and protective chemical gear in case the worst ever happens. Overkill? Maybe. On the other hand if I see a cloud of deadly toxic gas floating towards the house I'd rather have the equipment available so I could safely evacuate rather than be choking, blinded and flopping around on the ground like a gaffed tuna.

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