UKC

Viewed a house yesterday and considering putting in an offer. The house itself is beautiful, but the garden backs onto an embankment for train tracks and I'm concerned about what the noise will be like. The line is one of the main commuter lines into Bristol Temple Meads with trains starting at 5.20am and going until just after midnight. There is the occasional intercity train and it is also used for freight.

Any experience and advice?

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

I used to in one of my University accommodation. Tbh, it wasn't bad at all, my room was the room that faced the tracks. I got used to it pretty quickly. We had a magpie nest outside the back and they were 100% worse than any of the trains.

In reply to Duke_Haphazard:

Wasn't Kingston University / Clayhill Halls of residence in Surbiton by any chance, was it?

A prime piece of property that was...Massive graveyard on one side, Berrylands sewage works and water treatment plant on the other, and the main Clapham to F*ckKnowsWhere train track running down the other side of it.

To be honest, it's amazing how fast you zone the noise out. In halls, we had a line of trees between us but I then moved to a flat in New Malden which was even close to the line, and barley noticed it.

At the moment we live by Manchester airport. Don't even notice the noise. The only time it becomes apparent is if we go off on holiday to somewhere really quiet...when we get back, it's really obvious for about a day or two, and then it's gone again.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

My daughter lived at RAF Northolt (West London) 18 metres from the track. Trains started about 5.30am and were about every four or five minutes at peak times. Horrendous intrusion. It was almost impossible to sit in the garden during the summer. If a train stopped at signals the passengers sat and looked into your house. There were also planes and helicopters flying regularly overhead ( as one would expect) so not a good place if you like peace and quiet. As MOD housing the rent was low but as they are maintained by a private company ( Corillian) the inside was also apalling. Rambling off topic now as usual!

In reply to john spence:


Quite odd this. I'm really sensitive to noise (slightest creak in the house or p*ss head walking past in the early house has me awake), but he regular noise (like jumbo jets taking off and landing 2 miles away doesn't phase me ar all)

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:
Another former resident of Kingston Clayhill. I got used to it rather quickly

In reply to wbo:

Hahahahaha....I was in block 44a......around 1994 -ish

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Cheers all for the replies. Sounds like something I'd probably get used to.

Now I just need to think about the pub opposite...

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Well you have the Rising Sun and the Railway tavern in Surbiton (or at least you used to...)

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:



Funny thing noise....spent a year in Wythenshawe getting used to manchester airport then had a week in the lakes and went made with silence...(then spent another week getting used to the planes)...

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:


Keep in mind that other people getting used to it doesn't mean you will do, if it was me I'd probably try and find somewhere in a similar situation and try and figure out if I could put up with it & then get used to it.

Different things can drive different people nuts.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

You get used to it very quickly

In reply to ThunderCat:

(like jumbo jets taking off and landing 2 miles away doesn't phase me at all) These planes were not 2 miles away but less than a quarter of a mile ( and fighter jets) flying over the house, It didn't bother every body but it got to me if I stayed for a few days. The trains were more of an issue than the aircraft.

In reply to john spence:


Sorry, that came through as a single block of text so not sure what was an objection (if it was an objection)

Just saying that for me, the trains and aircraft were a problem for about 2 days, and then became part of the background noise. Airport is about 2 miles away, train track was much closer.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

The machine that packs the gravel back under the tracks at 2-3am used to get into my dreams.

Very odd dreams. Only once a year though.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Lived for a couple of years c50m from the track, some houses between mine and the trains but a clear sightline to the rails generally. The coal trains run all night slowing, idling and accelerating there at a major junction, the first night I was aghast at the noise and physical rumbling. By night 3 I was sleeping through it. When we moved out it was actually something of a loss but then I'm very laid back about this sort of thing, your experience may differ.

jk

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle: Used to back on to the District Line with faster BR trains running parallel, after a month or so it became background noise and rarely noticed it.

In reply to Timmd:



That doesn't make the sense I intended. Try and find somewhere 'to stay' which is in a similar situation.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Surprised but reassured by the overriding response. Think an offer will be going in tomorrow morning.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:
I don't want to seem like a negative person, but I can't believe you're taking other people's experiences of getting used to trains as part of a basis for putting in an offer on a house.

It just seems a bit risky to me, I'd be wanting to try sleeping somewhere with trains first, to see if I thought I could as well.

Best of luck and all that though, hope it turns out well.

Edit:Resale could be harder with it being next to a railway line.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Lived for 15 years in garden flat backing on to both the Met & Jubilee lines plus the Chiltern Railways line.
I found the noise unobtrusive - in fact, there is something rather comforting about the regularity and repetitiveness about the "noise". I found it to be far less of a distraction or nuisance than the occasional squeal of car tyres or the sound of a car horn.
It might depend on whether there's a decent patch of garden plus baffling trees and hedges

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Another thing to consider is that if you intend selling sometime in the future, even if you get comfortable with the noise, it probably will put some prospective buyers off and could reduce the amount you will get for the house.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

The only way to find out is to go and stand near the line for a few hours on a weekend morning (guessing it's not as important in the week) to see how the bad the noise is. You're buying a house so a few hours spent doing something boring like that could be time well spent!

In reply to Timmd:


I'm really OCD about noise: cars, motorbikes (especially), petrol-powered hedge-trimmers (especially), petrol-powered leaf-blowers (especially), strimmers (especially), tile cutters (especially), radios and music generally (especially), the odd plane.

But I'm fine about trains. Really like them. Romantic sound. Particularly steam (we hear the charming Watercress line, as it happens, but it wouldn't trouble me in the slightest if it were the 5.42 morning service to London Waterloo). I once lived 40 feet from the East Coast line north of Darlo and loved every single minute of it.

Having said that, I'm in no ways a train spotter.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

For a while I lived in London in Islington backing onto the north London line between H&I and Camden stations. The everyday commuter trains were OK as they weren't hurtling through at 100mph like some intercity trains (theoretically) can.

At night, the large, slow moving freight trains would come through and the sound wave was emitted was low frequency and made the front of the house shake. But the back of the house, closer to the trains, was actually less disturbed.

Later I lived in the same area when they were building the Eurostar extension to St Pancras - we got notes through the letterbox to say we may experience drilling as they bored out the tunnel. We got the odd vibration but it merged into the general London cacophony to be honest.

We spent a good half hour there in which time two trains went past (two carriages only) and, well, they sounded like trains! Overwhelmingly, people (you lot and friends) have said that it's something you don't even notice.

We'd like to spend more time making a decision but house hunting in Bristol looks like this at the moment: Saturday - open day; Monday midday - initial bids; Tuesday midday - best and final. I do NOT recommend it.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

I used to live close enough to a station that I could catch a train by waiting until I heard it approach the station and then leaving my front door. About 100 yards. I now live under the flight path for Brum airport. Planes go past low enough we can see the people through the plane windows. Neither planes or trains have ever bothered me.

Car noise and birdsong, however, wakes me up and drives me bonkers.

It rather depends if you're the kind of person who gets irritated by planes and trains or cars and birds.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Which line? Bristol area is being resignalled soon so expect more late night work than normal for next few years and more train horns during the day. Also track maintenance and renewals can be very noisy work, tamping in particular is deafening and if you're near a junction will happen more often. Vast majority of nights would be quiet though. Enjoy!

In reply to Cheese Monkey:

Between Stapleton Road and Lawrence Hill. Good knowledge on the signalling work. Thanks!

In reply to Greenbanks:




I agree, I moved out ifnLondon to leafy Hertfordshire and the traffic constantly droning up and down the main road was a real nuisance. Especially motorbikes.

In reply to DancingOnRock:

Same move I made, London to Herts! Now its M25 and airplanes...

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Go and camp at Hardhurst Farm in the Peaks for a week and stay in your tent to see if you can live with it.

That's about 20m from the railway but it never bothers me at all even with only a sheet of nylon and no earplugs!

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:
How old is the house? If it is relatively new it will have/should have been built with specific noise attenuation measures to protect against the train noise for both habitable rooms and the garden etc. You would have to speak with the planning department to see if any noise related conditions were attached to the approval notice etc

If it wasn't built with specific measures in place it may have been retrofitted. Not typical but I have seen them. Have you asked?

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

This video might help: -

youtube.com/watch?v=9mLu5jOUmws&

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Also remembered that line may be electrified over next few years which would mean alot of piling work taking place. But quieter trains once its finished.

Network Rail may write to you to let you know about major work
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/1015.aspx

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Personally, I wouldn't do it. I bought a flat which was probably about 70 metres from the train tracks with a bowling alley and a road in between. Most of the time you could get used to it, no problem, I didn't notice it that much, but it was the heavy goods trains at night (something which you only find out about once you moved in of course) which would make the glasses in the cupboards rattle, etc and kept waking me up. Sold it after few years. Some people seem to be immune to noise, though. Some neighbours were not bothered about it at all. Difficult to know until you have lived there. Good luck