Anybody live near a railroad track?

[Another Fan]

Grew up in a house with Conrail train tracks behind it.  The train used to come by 1 or 2 times a day.

 

Every now and then it would pass in the wee hours.  I'm a heavy sleeper so it never bothered me.  The only fear being the train would de-rail

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

7 hours ago, plenzmd1 said:

I do not live close, but close enough that I can hear the train come through at night.What surprises me though is the nicest and most desirable neighborhoods of whats called the near West End and the West End Of Richmond sit right along the tracks.

I mean I hear the trains at 3AM and I am 3/4 mile away..there is a neighborhood filled with $1.5M + homes that sits truly right nest to the tracks...how they hell they sleep every night is beside me.

 

But they are right next to the most exclusive CC golf course..so maybe that is the draw.

 

You'd be surprised. Before my demon-possessed ex-wife and i bought a house in the midst of farmland, we lived in an apartment DIRECTLY next to railroad tracks. It was a hassle, but when we moved to the house, it was dead quiet. I couldn't sleep for a week, and every tiny sound in the house would wake me.

 

[707BillsFan]

4 hours ago, Mr Info said:

I forgot to add some info to my reply after I saw the communication between @707BillsFan& @RochesterRob

 

The town I live in has a restriction of 30 mph for all trains (Amtrak & CSX) thru the town. In addition, there is a restriction on train audio whistles/horns thru the town but unsure of the exact wording of that restriction.

Our train (SMART) has been going less than a year. They tested the trains for about 8 mos prior to starting customer service. During testing, they'd run all day and sometimes night. Early on (before the ordinances), that damned whistle / horn was an annoyance. I live about a 1/4 mile away from the track w/ crossing. Quiet neighborhood, that and the dinging bells echoed through the area. People complained, they stopped. There's a sign posted stating it's a non-whistling blowing area...so be careful. Not sure how fast this train goes, but it does reach up to near 80 mph in some stretches. 

 

On another side note...we're thankful for the new train. They cleaned up the old tracks and plant life along the corridor. Save our home during our fires in October, created a nice buffer zone so the fire didn't completely jump. 

[Gray Beard]

1 hour ago, Golden Goat said:

Growing up, I had a few friend who lived in Woodside, Queens. The #7 train was literally 30 feet from their row house window and passed every 7 minutes. It deafened me; They claimed they slept like babies. 

 

 

 

 

This is Chicago, but same idea

[Augie]

9 hours ago, plenzmd1 said:

I do not live close, but close enough that I can hear the train come through at night.What surprises me though is the nicest and most desirable neighborhoods of whats called the near West End and the West End Of Richmond sit right along the tracks.

I mean I hear the trains at 3AM and I am 3/4 mile away..there is a neighborhood filled with $1.5M + homes that sits truly right nest to the tracks...how they hell they sleep every night is beside me.

 

But they are right next to the most exclusive CC golf course..so maybe that is the draw.

 

We went to a fundraiser a while back at a $2+M house and was very impressed with the place. Great neighborhood! About 30 minutes in, a train goes ROARING by right at the back edge of his property line. Big lots, but you would have a hard time having a conversation on the back patio. INSANELY loud! The owner didn’t blink. I know lots of places around here where you can great a great house without THAT in your back yard.

 

Atlanta has a TON of train traffic. For the first 6-12 months it would wake and annoy me, but now I never even hear it. 

 

My wife worked with a guy who bought a new house (in the Vinings for ATL folks). We were nosey (of course!) and looked it up an line. Beautiful place! We were jealous. Couldn’t believe he got it for that price. Yep, right by the tracks. He told her “well, we’re on the other side of the street, and it IS a no-blow zone thru the little village”. OK, I guess. She went for a work event on night and a train went by. She told me something like “no-blow zone my arse! If your internal organs are shaking you’re too close to the damn tracks!” 

Edited June 2, 2018 by Augie

[John from Riverside]

 When I was a young boy I lived in a town called Victor Idaho my stepfather at the time was a foreman for Union Pacific Railroad not only did we live in a house that was right next to the tracks the house was haunted as people that died in it previously lots of stories

[Wacka]

When I was little, we lived on the East side of Buffalo. There were train tracks right across the street.  Never noticed the trains going by. When we moved out to Cheektowaga,  there was a trucking company next door. The noise from the refrigeration units on the trucks never bothered us.  There is a rack line about a mile away. Hear the whistles at night. Never wakes me up.

Edited June 2, 2018 by Wacka

[Augie]

We met a guy who lives near some active tracks and he said he found the trains “comforting”. WTF? 

[row_33]

By a public and large high school in my hometown there were two lines, one a freight and the other a high speed passenger train.

 

A few times through the years a kid would ignore the lights and cross, usually on bike, just behind the freight train and into the path of the passenger train

 

 

[LeGOATski]

I live maybe 4 blocks from the BNSF railway. The trains are super long and super slow. At night, when it's all quiet, the horn can seem pretty loud. I can't imagine living right next to it. Just the sound and rumble of that mile-long train passing by would be annoying

 

When I lived back east, we were not too far from an Amtrack railway. More than a few times, people were hit because they were walking/running along the tracks and not paying attention. It's mind-boggling to me, but our parents warned us constantly about it, since my group of friends would be out hanging around who-knows-where.

[PromoTheRobot]

On 6/2/2018 at 8:37 AM, RochesterRob said:

  Going through a town after getting tires for my pickup.  Went over a track and notice the one house along the street could not be more than 15 feet from the track.  Being at a street crossing the train by law has to blow its whistle which would have to be deafening at 15 feet.  Further, there were younger kids playing outside with little in the way of a yard.  Hopefully, they have a good healthy fear of a locomotive as it passes through versus playing inches away from the track.  There was a story in the news a while back about a home owner whose property butts up against a railroad track.  The owner had moved there recently and got it into his head that the railroad track there was not active so he parks things like his boat tight to the tracks.  Long story made short is train passes through during the night so the engineer does not see the boat so edge of boat closest to the tracks gets hit creating 2-3 thousand dollars worth of damage.  Interesting to me as there are still plenty of railroad tracks across WNY and even though you may never see a train at a given crossing but if you sit there long enough you will see a train pass through.

Once I decided to take the Amtrak from Worcester to Buffalo. (It was nice other than the complete lack of mobile data along the way.) One place outside of Albany the train went full speed right through the middle of town. I'm talking down Main Street past businesses and homes at 60+ mph. Later I figured it was Fonda, NY. Can't believe people there put to with that.

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsi_ItK-j30

Edited June 3, 2018 by \GoBillsInDallas/

[Augie]

Why do trains need horns, anyway? The gates come down, the lights are flashing, the DING-DING-DING is going. Oh, and there’s this GIANT TRAIN in front of you that’s kinda hard to miss since it’s making plenty of noise on it’s own and rattling your internal organs! 

[ExiledInIllinois]

Yes.  Half a mile from the North-South Union Pacific tracks in town.

 

You get used to the rumble and the horns... Rumbles like thunder. Slack in the trains will cause a crashing sound.

 

In Buffalo (West Seneca/S.Cheek) now... It's very quiet here w/windows open.  Too quiet.  I can hear a little noise in distance.

 

Goods gotta get moved.

 

@ the lock in S.Chicago... @ work... I go easy on the long and prolonged (air) horn/whistle @ night... Short horn to leave, prolonged to enter.  On Midnight Shift... Just use a 1 sec short horn for both... Dont want to wake up the whole neighborhood of Hegewisch (Chicago/Hammond, Indiana Line).

 

Emergency horn will be annoying.  4 long prolonged blasts, followed by sequences of short blast depending location of water emergency (upper, lower pool or chamber). But nothing you can do there.

 

 

10 hours ago, Augie said:

Why do trains need horns, anyway? The gates come down, the lights are flashing, the DING-DING-DING is going. Oh, and there’s this GIANT TRAIN in front of you that’s kinda hard to miss since it’s making plenty of noise on it’s own and rattling your internal organs! 

Lot of unprotected gates, no semaphores, etc...  What if guards fail?  Some communities petition for no whistles @ night... Signs go up stating it.

 

Walkers?  Bikers crossing tracks where the guards don't reach?

 

Going into work, there is a unprotected crossing, no guards, a spur siding.  There they will send a freight conductor out and place a few fuze-ees/flares on the crossing.

Edited June 4, 2018 by ExiledInIllinois

[BuffaloBill]

On 6/2/2018 at 8:47 AM, plenzmd1 said:

I do not live close, but close enough that I can hear the train come through at night.What surprises me though is the nicest and most desirable neighborhoods of whats called the near West End and the West End Of Richmond sit right along the tracks.

I mean I hear the trains at 3AM and I am 3/4 mile away..there is a neighborhood filled with $1.5M + homes that sits truly right nest to the tracks...how they hell they sleep every night is beside me.

 

But they are right next to the most exclusive CC golf course..so maybe that is the draw.

 

 

Knoxville is this way - there are $1MM+ homes that sit just on the other side of the hedge row from the tracks.  There seem to be only a few trains per day and they move slowly.  

[Augie]

7 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Yes.  Half a mile from the North-South Union Pacific tracks in town.

 

You get used to the rumble and the horns... Rumbles like thunder. Slack in the trains will cause a crashing sound.

 

In Buffalo (West Seneca/S.Cheek) now... It's very quiet here w/windows open.  Too quiet.  I can hear a little noise in distance.

 

Goods gotta get moved.

 

@ the lock in S.Chicago... @ work... I go easy on the long and prolonged (air) horn/whistle @ night... Short horn to leave, prolonged to enter.  On Midnight Shift... Just use a 1 sec short horn for both... Dont want to wake up the whole neighborhood of Hegewisch (Chicago/Hammond, Indiana Line).

 

Emergency horn will be annoying.  4 long prolonged blasts, followed by sequences of short blast depending location of water emergency (upper, lower pool or chamber). But nothing you can do there.

 

 

Lot of unprotected gates, no semaphores, etc...  What if guards fail?  Some communities petition for no whistles @ night... Signs go up stating it.

 

Walkers?  Bikers crossing tracks where the guards don't reach?

 

Going into work, there is a unprotected crossing, no guards, a spur siding.  There they will send a freight conductor out and place a few fuze-ees/flares on the crossing.

 

I’m OK with only getting rid of 99% of the horns to satisfy your exceptions. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

7 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

I’m OK with only getting rid of 99% of the horns to satisfy your exceptions. 

People are idiots.® A few years back, we had a teen ride right into a fast freight in center of town via her bicycle.

 

Guards down, no mini side guards on sidewalk... BUT PLENTY of lights. Cars, traffic stopped @ crossing.  She had her head down, earbuds in.   By that time freight was going thru fast, horns NOT blasting. Horns queuing up for next crossing.  She was obliterated by train.  I wanna say 14-15 years old.  Cop stopped @ light saw her, other cars too... Yelling and screaming, honking their horns... Cop jumped out of cruiser and tried to tackle her.  Too late.  Pretty sad situation.

 

There are crossings everywhere in town.  I can think of @ least five I pick and choose from when heading to other (east) side of town.  That's a lot of whistles & horns. You don't hear a rumbling, smooth, fast freight as it flys thru town... Well this girl didn't.  Of course now there are sidewalk guards... 

[Augie]

2 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

People are idiots.® A few years back, we had a teen ride right into a fast freight in center of town via her bicycle.

 

Guards down, no mini side guards on sidewalk... BUT PLENTY of lights. Cars, traffic stopped @ crossing.  She had her head down, earbuds in.   By that time freight was going thru fast, horns NOT blasting. Horns queuing up for next crossing.  She was obliterated by train.  I wanna say 14-15 years old.  Cop stopped @ light saw her, other cars too... Yelling and screaming, honking their horns... Cop jumped out of cruiser and tried to tackle her.  Too late.  Pretty sad situation.

 

There are crossings everywhere in town.  I can think of @ least five I pick and choose from when heading to other (east) side of town.  That's a lot of whistles & horns. You don't hear a rumbling, smooth, fast freight as it flys thru town... Well this girl didn't.  Of course now there are sidewalk guards... 

 

You can’t protect every idiot from everything. How do you ride your bike into a train? They are big and loud. They are NOT invisible. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

3 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

You can’t protect every idiot from everything. How do you ride your bike into a train? They are big and loud. They are NOT invisible. 

She was 19.  Not 15.  They aren't that big and loud.

 

I have to stop and think about them... I am so desensitized, even with Windows open.

 

You don't hear them after a while.  Heck, when the wife worked @ library in town, building was only 50 feet from tracks, there would be cracks in walls.  You don't even realize train is there.

[Augie]

9 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

She was 19.  Not 15.  They aren't that big and loud.

 

I have to stop and think about them... I am so desensitized, even with Windows open.

 

You don't hear them after a while.  Heck, when the wife worked @ library in town, building was only 50 feet from tracks, there would be cracks in walls.  You don't even realize train is there.

 

Do you realize there are other cars on the road? 

 

 

Are they smaller and quieter than that? 

 

 

I don’t cross the road without looking both ways. Why would I do any less at a railroad track? Should cars honk their horns at every intersection? 

Edited June 4, 2018 by Augie