How Close to a Railroad Track Do You Live?

Hurricane Helena washed out the Clinchfield* through the Nolichucky Gorge, and for 2 months since, I have not enjoyed hearing trains coming through my community. Often when I go to bed, and before my alarm clock officially wakes me up, I can hear that low frequency pulsating rumble. I live near a wide horseshoe curve with two grade crossings several miles away, and the rumble also will carry the air horn signals. I always enjoyed when a train comes through the community. In the last city we lived in, the Nickel Plate’s main line was 1,000 feet away from the house. Before that, the UP’s Southern Pacific Sunset Route was down in the valley a few miles away, and if the wind was blowing right I could hear the trains.

So which of you live close enough to the tracks that you can hear and - better yet - see the trains moving about?

*Now part of sterile branded CSX

5 Likes

We can’t see them, but since I was a kid, having just moved to Florida from Hawaii, I was always amazed at how close the SCL diesels sounded when they were in fact a good distance away.
Even now I can hear them at night sometimes although we’re at least two miles from the tracks. Of course we do hear the horns late at night.

3 Likes

I don’t live close enough to see the activity, but I can hear the trains running through Villa Rica, GA alongside I-20. I am about seven miles away and I can hear them late at night as they roll through.

In Carrollton, GA, the old train station was converted into a rental space and my school’s special ed group would hold Thanksgiving dinner in there before the school break. The sliding doors for boarding allowed us to watch the trains servicing Southwire, which is a wire-making factory in town that ships out globally. The siding is still used to park some of the cars and the kids would watch them go back and forth blocking traffic.

3 Likes

The Pierre & Eastern Railroad (RCPE) is our local railroad. Currently I live about 1/2 mile away (as the crow flies) from a railroad spur, but it is on the opposite side of a hill from where my house is located so unless you are trying to hear it you don’t notice. But you can hear the horns when they sound. The spur runs through town to a cement plant, so they don’t go fast, so it is pretty quiet. The main tracks are on the opposite side of town from where I live, so we never hear them. Back in the early 90s I lived in a townhouse about 150 yards away from the tracks of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad, so I heard trains all the time and our dishes in the cupboard, and the pictures and things on the walls, would rattle when the train went by. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

I live within an easy 1/4 mile (.30 miles to be exact) of mainline tracks, and an Amtrak Station. Freight runs almost all day, everyday, and is mostly UP, both regional and locals, with relatively frequent heavy and light power moves, which are cool to see! Every now and then other lines roll through, and it’s not unusual to see BNSF trains running, though I don’t know the “rules” of who runs and why. Amtrak runs frequently - mostly the Capitol Corridor commuter line.

I’ve lived here for just over 20 years, so the frequent horn blasts went almost unnoticed by me - there were though a few late night freighter trains that really sat on the horns :smile: - as there are at least four nearby at grade crossings. I am speaking in past tense here because over the many years, lots of residential development has happened - not all that bad of a situation by the way, as we now have a nearby grocery and many other stores, bars and restaurants, parks and trails etc most of which I can walk to - BUT, recently, a no-horn ordinance was passed by the City and is followed by the railroads! Every now and then you hear a horn, but a lot less often :smile:

At one point, there was an active siding running down the street in front of my place. Funny thing about that siding - it was clearly posted as active - 24 hrs a day…and yet, more that a few (including an ex of mine :smile:) had her bumper ripped off for parking too close to the tracks! She was pissed - I decided it was smarter to feign sympathy, and struggled to not point out “I told you so!” :smile: :smile:

Cheers
Nick

3 Likes

My map tells me I’m a bit further than that, 1800 feet or about half-a-klick in new money. When we first moved in (coming up seven decades ago) it was line-of-sight from the back bedroom window but around the millennium they put in a bypass round the village at the top of the hill to my north with a major roundabout between me and the railway; we were provided with secondary double glazing because of the road noise so I can’t hear the trains much and they planted trees around the junction so I can’t see them either… The railway is on a raised embankment on a boggy valley floor and I’m a couple of hundred feet higher up the valley side; back when the trains were steam-hauled the vegetation on the embankment was either on fire or growing back, and as the quickest route from the fire station to the railway was past the house the clangour of bells was the cue for me to have a look. It still happens when a steam excursion (now rarely) uses the route but because the green stuff hasn’t been burned off for decades it’s more of an event and people make a fuss about it…
I lost much interest in the railway when my years approached double figures as they built a big new hospital at the top of the valley side and I could get to the Helipad in about five minutes on my bike, and choppers were more fun (especially when one blew you over). Now I hear them all the time, especially when one of the big new Coastguard jobs decides the approach vector is THROUGH my bedroom…

Cheers,

M

3 Likes

A few hundred feet shy of a mile, no level crossings, no horns, very few diesels.
Mostly passenger trains, local, regional, national and the express shuttle to Arlanda airport.
Plenty of buildings in between and triple glazing means I don’t hear anything at all.
On the few occasions I have used the nearest local commuter train station I have heard and seen
the Arlanda Express going by at 112 mph, the zip-zip-zip noise isn’t very exciting.

3 Likes

Probably over a mile from CSX S line currently running freight. Folks are trying to get a Raleigh to Richmond passenger line (Amtrak Piedmont line). They want to have a stop in town. The old terminal was converted long ago to commercial space. Don’t see many trains come through but do hear the horns from time to time. With the terrain, trees (what’s left of them), and structures between tracks and myself it gives the impression of a train off in the distance.

2 Likes

Back in my service days in Germany I lived right beside the line leading to the sidings where the tanks came in to go onto Hohne Ranges (my flat marked with a red ellipse). For those who don’t know that was the main German/British range complex for AFV’s in the north of Germany. At least twice a week a train would trundle past at very low speed carrying tanks to the sidings for them to offload onto the ranges. My wife worked in the RAC Gunnery Wing at that time and came to be able to identify the various tanks that would roll by.

3 Likes

I live 2 blocks south of Medford station on the mainline of the Long Island Rail Road. We hear the passenger trains and work trains pass by several times a day but especially the freight trains from New York and Atlantic rumble by as well.
About 4 miles south of me on the Montauk branch at Patchogue station we sometimes hear the horns from the diesel passenger trains. It’s amazing how the sound carries that far.

1 Like

My childhood house on Long Island backed onto the Montauk branch. From house to fence at the rear was maybe 30 yards, then there was a dirt service road (another 5 yards?), then the embankment for the track bed - so maybe 50 yards total. We had two eastbound and two westbound trains each hour from early morning to late evening, plus occasional freight in between. We had the rumbling, the horns, and the bells, as we were only a block from a crossing, and maybe three blocks from the nearest station.

I grew up playing around those tracks, and the sound of a GP38-2 still stirs my soul. My dad was a Scout leader along with a senior engineer, so every time that guy ran a train past our house we’d get a special horn salute! But it was a bit less popular in the evenings, when we couldn’t hear the TV…

1 Like

Yes the NYAR uses old LIRR GP-38s that have been upgraded and repainted.

1 Like

The LIRR ran RS3s and C420s when I was little, but the change to GP38s, MP15ACs, and those rebuilt HEP cabs in the early 70s marked the start of my pre-teen adventures trackside so that’s my abiding image of the LIRR. We have old film of the early stuff taken by my dad, but I can’t remember it myself. I’ve got some HO-scale NYAR units in my collection, but I still prefer the old blue & white Gabreski “wave” scheme of my youth!

1 Like

We still use the MP-15s for work trains, also NYAR has few of ours as well. Ours look like crap though, I guess the railroad isn’t concerned about appearances. Sad….

![IMG_0166|375x500]
(upload://t9S2J7fp3AvmHvBVNZO3mwkNK3d.jpeg)


The bottom pic was a stone train I was the brakeman on.

2 Likes

For some reason, my first pic didn’t come out. It’s an MP-15AC at the Jamaica Storage Yard just west of Jamaica station in Queens, NYC.

2 Likes

I have about 20-30 engines in my collection with many other types of rolling stock, I have a set of LIRR passenger cars in the orange / gray livery. Probably my favorite scheme. I have an RS-3 from Proto on the LIRR orange scheme also, and and a Fairbanks- Morse engine as well. Every thing is in boxes, I don’t have the time or money to do both armor and railroading modeling unfortunately.

2 Likes

Here’s a little “then and now”:
This is Beth tower which controls Beth interlocking near Bethpage station, and where Grumman used to be located.
Now no longer in service.

Not sure of the date on this pic, but this is the “ then” lol

3 Likes

Actually the second pic is present day looking west, first pic looking east.

“ICHABOD” :skull:

Nope no glory, unfortunately things have changed