What’s living along the tracks like?

I’ve been thinking a lot about retirement lately and where I want to live. My dream place would be somewhere rural near a railroad. Maybe not right up against one where the dishes are rumbling in the cupboards, but at least close enough to see trains traveling by. My wife’s not so happy with the idea and I was just wondering what it would be like to live close enough to see trains from your window.

I currently live about two miles from the tracks although I can’t see them. I can hear them occasionally in the early morning or when they blow their whistle at a road crossing. For 10 years I was waking up around 4AM every morning without a clue as to why, then one day I just happened to be outside on my way to work when I heard the train. I had to go to work early every day that one week and I discovered that the train came through every day at the same time. Now I know all the times they come through and I listen for them, but I sure wish I could see them.

So what’s it like to live along the tracks and would my wife ever get use to it?
I mentioned this to my coworker and he responded with “to dangerous because of the high criminal elements”. Well I wasn’t thinking about in the big city, it’s strictly rural area with at least 1acre lots for me.

Note: I don’t really see a place on TrainBoard to talk generally about railroads, but since my family wants me to retire in Pennsylvania and my brother-in-law works for NS, I thought this might be the place.

 

I used to enjoy staying at my mom's house when I visited Houston. I could railfan while (almost) sleeping in bed. My wife grew up along the tracks, and she felt good about hearing the trains too.


The first time I heard the 1990 edition HB&T horns deliberately turned to be cacaphonous and ear-jarring, it took some getting used to.
The bullet hole through the front window only bothered us a little bit. Probably wan't aimed at anybody specifically, just blowing off steam. I mean, blowing off a round.
Now with no one living there, the house has no gas or phone and lots of spiders and mold and I don't care to stay there so much. We need to sell it to somebody who will appreciate it.

 

Try renting a hotel room that is within the range of the tracks and then see how you like it from there.

 

Well, I guess there is some concern about crime near towns. I go to Barstow CA a lot and I’m quite fond of the place because of all the rich railroad history and the hump yard right in town, but people that I know there tell me that it’s not a safe place to live or to visit at night. I grew up in Pittsburg and I used to follow the tracks all over the place. I never experienced anything real bad only got mugged a couple of times, of course that was 50 years ago. I may be wrong, but I think things have gotten more violent since then. I want to definitely live farther out in the country where there will not be anybody traveling through on the tracks.

I’ve been using Google to follow tracks outside of Pittsburgh and then looking for places for sale in the area. I found a place that had a clear view of the tracks and I had my sister and brother in law check it out for me. They didn’t like it too much and my brother-in-law said that he’s heard rumors that the place is scheduled to shut down completely and there’s no telling what will take its place. Now I’m wondering what is going on with Pennsylvania rail road’s. They seem to be vanishing, or am I just looking in the wrong area.

I was told that places with motels near railroads aren’t the best places to stay. At one time I went to Arizona to look for a place to retire and we decided to stay the whole weekend looking at houses. There was something going on that weekend and we could not find a motel, so we stayed right next to the tracks with full view of BNSF running through every ½ hour. Of course I was in seventh heaven while my wife could not wait to get out of there. There were a lot of shady looking characters hanging around and I was concerned about the truck parked in the lot.

 

I personally wouldnt do it for two reasons.
1. Crime... Nobody wants to live near a busy line so they tend to build a business or low income housing along the tracks so you tend to get a bunch of transients walking the tracks or a ton of trucks coming and going.
2. Horns... Yes it sounds fine now but pull your car in the garage and blow the horn about 10 times then wait 10 minutes and do it again ten times.Now imagine doing that for 24 hours a day 7 days a week and 365 days a year with no break.It will get old quick.Now imagine the rail grinder coming down the line while company is over and then here comes the ballast cleaner and so on and so on.

 

Well you do have point there. I wonder how many transients are walking the tracks out in the boonies.
About the horns, how often are they blowing those horns out in the country in an area without many road crossings.

 

I was just wondering with all the high tech railroad security these days are there still people riding the rails?

 

Yes. Trains stop to meet other trains and sometimes people get on. We have had 2 unfortunate people who missed though. One is now missing his legs and one arm, the other is missing an arm. The one missing his legs and arm was crossing a train between the second and third units. The other was trying to hop in a boxcar and missed. For whatever reason there are still idiots that think riding the rails illegally is a fun time.

 

Like everything...."it depends". :cyclops:

The horns are a personal preference thing. I spent 95% of my pre-college years either at my house @ 4 blocks away from two rail lines or at my grandparents @ about 100 yards away from a steady/somewhat-busy BN mainline. Both were easily within earshot of the blaring horns, and the latter also had some major window vibration and "bass" although stopping just short of "rattling". I also have an uncle by marriage and his mother lived right on the tracks in my hometown which is most assuredly why he was a train nut....hehe

I am a heavy sleeper, and I'm not sure if that was a result of my early exposure to railroad noise or the reason it didn't bother me. I have looked at homes (new homes, in modern subdivisions) that are adjacent tracks and it was not a deterrent to me although I did intend to use it as a bargaining chip. (bwahahaha) However, my GF is a light sleeper and I doubt she could survive such an environment. So keep in mind it's not for everyone.

In most small towns, the crime component wouldn't likely be an issue. Sure, typically trackside development doesn't lend itself to quaint living, especially in large towns or cities. But there are plenty of new developments popping up trackside as people willing to take the bad (train noise/issues) with the good (bigger, nicer house discounted given rail proximity) are out there. Also, very small towns may have neighborhoods that were redeveloped in the 70's after railroad presence and related footprint took a nosedive. And of course very rural areas, farms, etc. are not uncommon near the railroads. So there ARE opportunities for nice homes trackside.

I recall some land my dad leased for running cattle that we both loved that backed up to a fairly lightly used MKT/OKKT mainline in the north Texas area. It was 10 miles or so to the nearest town and had a small unoccupied house on it at the time. It was maybe 20-30 acres and the house sat on the opposite side of the land, maybe 3/4 or 1 mile away and about 20-30ft above grade of the rail but the land declined sharply before levelling off about half mile from the tracks which were on a pretty tall fill all the way across the back property line. Room to run some cattle and some decent deer hunting as well. My dad hounded the guy to sell it to him and he said it was family land and wouldn't sell it, but he'd let him know if that ever changed. Wasn't 3-4 years later the guy sold it without letting us know. I feel like my parents might have retired there if they'd bought that place back then. But it was nice to see a few MKT trains pass thru each day, and now UP uses it more...probably 5-6 trains per day or more.

In downtown Fort Worth there are loft apartments/condos overlooking the infamous Tower 55. In most large cities I have to imagine that is not uncommon to find primo "railfan friendly" accomodations if you search hard enough and have deep enough pockets. :alien:

 

I live about 150' from what used to be the GTW RR mail line from Elsdon Yard. It is now the Hayford Siding although the CN/IC has upgraded it and sometimes runs stack trains over it. When I first bought the house,Elsdon Yard was still operating and we had several freights a day both in & outbound. We still get a little shaking of the dishes etc
but not much. As a kid I lived on the opposite side of the GTW RR about 1/2 mile eas to be exact and I could hear the trains all the time. That goes back to the steam era. I couldn't see them then unless I was on my way to school(I had to cross under them, they are on an elevation). Now I can see the trains all the time,but as I mentioned there is not much activity. My wife never minded the noise or the rumbling. She grew used to my railroad hobby and of course grew quite fond of my railroad paycheck!!
Dunno about crime, we dont have any related to the railroad in this area, never have had a problem. During the Depression and WW2 and just shortly thereafter there used to be a hobo jungle up at Elsdon Yard. That area was still kind of wild at that time.
On the BNSF there are expensive houses,apartment complexes and condos built right up to the ROW's edge. The area just south of Chicago's Loop has become quite gentrified and there are some expensive digs there, right next to the tracks!! The Orange Line rapid transit("L")spurred a good deal of development. There is a huge condo building,formerly the Beatrice Foods cold storage warehouse, right next to the St.Charles Air Line. The city would like to eliminate the Air Line, but it is too busy and a vital part of the CN/IC Chicago operation. There is some talk about putting it below grade like the UP main thru Reno NV. There are stores and housing units built up right on top of the leads to C.U.S. and next to the Zephyr Pit. As a matter of fact there is a HUGE upscale Dominick's supermarket right across Canal St at 14th from the Zephyr Pit.
It is located where the old Soo Line Freight House was. Nope crime is not a problem in that area! Finding an apartment or condo in your price range IS! LOL

Charlie

 

I would like to give our experience of living backed up to the tracks for 15 years.

To set the environment, the house is in Gulfport, MS. The area is suburban residential with 1/2 acre lots. Our back yard was separated from the ROW by an 8' wood fence and six light-medium density trees which gave some privacy, but no noise abatement. The railhead was 3-5' above our property. The tracks are the CSX main (ex-L&N, NO&M Sub) between New Orleans and Mobile. Usual train frequency was 15-20 100+ car freights per day and the tri-weekly Sunset Limited until Hurricane Katrina. Track speed is 60P/50F.

The house was built in 1986, sturdy enough to have no structural damage from Hurricane Katrina, well insulated, and with no windows facing the tracks. After the first week or so of moving in, we became unaware of the trains with all windows closed. However, we could not sleep with windows open due to the noise. The house has a slab foundation (no basement) built on relatively soft ground with a high water table. We felt a little shaking, but not as much as if the house was built in a rocky area, especially anywhere in or near the Appalachians.

On the down side, when we were outside in the back yard, all conversation stopped while a train was going by, and it was noisy and unpleasant. On the other hand, there some very interesting times for me, if not for my wife. These were when CSX was working on the line, especially after Hurricane Katrina. Also when there were some special moves like seeing the American Orient Express, the CSX corporate train, or 12 heavy late-model EMD and GE engines pulling one (1) boxcar. Oh yeh, then there was the time when the Sunset ran out of fuel right behind the house in the middle of July. Nobody was allowed off the train for nearly three hours while waiting for another engine, and none of the windows could be opened...did I mention it was in the middle of a very hot July day in south Missisippi. :tb-hissyfit:
Conclusion - We tolerated the location, but we would not do it again. I firmly believe that we were able to sell the house because no trains came by during the 4-5 times the folks who eventually bought it were there. We ran into a former neighbor a few months later who commented that the buyers had asked him if the trains were always that noisy and bothersome.....whatever. :tb-wink:

 

Oh that doesn’t sound too good. Maybe I need to find a place farther away, but maybe a good view of the tracks.

I now live in the desert and the one nice think about the desert is that there aren’t any trees to obstruct your vision. I know of a couple of places that I would do anything to have. They are far enough away that you can observe almost the whole train and probably not be affected by sound. But even though I do love the desert, I don’t want to live in CA after I retire.

I have a friend that moved up to the Bay Area near San Francisco into a deluxe apartment overlooking some tracks. I haven’t seen the place, but she doesn’t like trains. She did say that it was a new place and they went out of their way to sound proof the place. I haven’t spook to her in a long time and I often wonder how she’s weathering it

 

If you think living near trains is noisy, try living near an airport(Midway)like I do. I watch and hear the planes on final approach for 31L & 31R. If anyone recalls Dec of 1972 when there was a major airplane crash in Chicago of a UAL 737 with Howard Hunt's wife aboard, that crash was less than 1/2 mile from my present house.

My wife's sister lives in Park Ridge IL, near ORD. When her husband was still living, they lived in a house that was right in line with one of the major runways. Having a backyard party was a real experience. We would look at the undersides of the airplanes as they were landing!

Charlie

 

Oh yes I did experience that once. I did some work near Los Angles International Airport and I stayed in a cheap motel for a couple of week’s right in the flight path and oh my was it noisy. It was a month after i left to calm down.

It looks like I might have to give up on this train idea unless I can figure out how to sound proof a house and if it’s not too expensive.

 

All I can say is that it never really bothered us when the GTW RR was more active than it is now. There weren't all that many trains. It does get noisy with the airplanes at times. Some of the homes,schools and public buildings were soundproofed in a gov't. program several years back due to the proximity to the airport. The school my wife was the principal of was soundproofed. My engineer mentor lived in a village along the C & I
west of Chicago. His home faced the main line and the siding thru the town. If we happened to go thru town other than during the wee hours,he would give a couple of extra toots,or ask me to do so, when we passed his house. A couple of times his wife was outside to give a wave. It didn't bother him or his wife, but then again,like myself, those trains were paying our bills and putting food on the table.

Charlie

 

On my way to school the other day, half a mile short of the campus, I heard a roar that got louder and louder. As it reached its peak, I looked out my car window and saw-- no, not the underside-- the TOP of a B-52 that seemed not much more than a wingspan away, banking and turning so sharply he was almost upside down. Never saw anything that big flying that "hot."

(Our campus is next door to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi and we see lots of "hot" jet fighters.)

 

I was thinking today about transients and then I starting thinking about all the teenagers and young adults roaming around my suburban neighborhood without jobs or much hope of finding a job. I don’t think there’s too much difference except that there are probably more drunks along the tracks and I think there’s more of a chance of teens breaking in than a drunk. Since I’m planning on being more rural then in a neighborhood, this might not even be a problem.

I just need to be more concerned about noise. I guess maybe I need to find a track that’s not too busy. Last year when I was in Pittsburgh, my brother-in-law took me to a little town east of Pittsburgh and I can’t remember the name of it I meet a RailFan there who had all his cameras set up to catch an Amtrak or a NS and after waiting an hour or so he mentioned that there’s not that many trains running anymore. So I think I could handle a place that only has 2 or 3 trains running per day. I just don't know where that is.