# How close have you lived to a train? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 18, 2007, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427 "2007-03-18T13:41:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zyzzyva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@zyzzyva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zyzzyva)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/41 "2007-03-19T17:13:55Z")
Do [these](http://www.sfmta.com/cms/img/feature12/indxrout.jpg) count? If so, my bedroom is no more than about 30 feet from them, with my window overlooking the tracks. Count me among the, “not bothered unless trying to listen to something” crowd. Rail traffic rarely bothers me. Street traffic occassionally bothers me. Drunk pedestrians talking too loudly _always_ bothers me. I guess that’s the price you pay for living in the middle of the city. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/42 "2007-03-19T17:16:05Z")
Couple hundred feet when I lived in Oregon. I was talking on the phone one day, and the guy on the other end goes, “is that a train passing by?” “Oh, yeah, I guess it is.” The only time I ever noticed it was when the engineer would lay on his whistle the entire time he was passing through town at like 2 am. I guarantee it was just some asshole having a shit day. No need for that at all. ---
**Author:** ![Emilio\_Lizardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Emilio\_Lizardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emilio_Lizardo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/43 "2007-03-19T17:33:30Z")
I grew up in an apartment in Chicago that was (so Google tells me) a mere 300 feet from the Illinois Central train tracks. Pretty quiet, though. I now live 1,790 feet from active CSX tracks, which isn’t really a problem, but I am also 2,270 feet from a grade crossing at which all trains need to sound their horns. Amazingly enough, you get used to it after awhile. ---
**Author:** ![2nd\_Law](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f475e1/32.png) [@2nd\_Law](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2nd_Law)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/44 "2007-03-20T00:29:09Z")
Hmm, I’ve been thinking about this some more. After the old Bell and Howell building I moved to an apartment a couple of blocks from the Brown line Addison stop in Chicago, then my now ex and I bought a house across the alley from another train line, which per googlemaps is 87 feet from the tracks. I hated that house, as far as I know the ex still has it. Now I live a more comfortable distance from the South Shore line in Michigan City, 1300 feet away. Close enough to hear, but it sounds better when it doesn’t rattle the windows. Dave ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/45 "2007-03-20T00:57:23Z")
60 or 70 feet at our old place. (Horizontal distance…it was also raised to about the level of our roof.) ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/46 "2007-03-20T01:49:07Z")
I go to [Grinnell College](http://www.math.grinnell.edu/~lyonavra/quizbowl/ghist2004/directions.html) . The train goes by not 50 feet from the dorm (in this case, the green buildings labelled 19). I especially like it when they go by at midnight and pull the whistle the entire way through campus. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/47 "2007-03-20T03:16:03Z")
We’re probably about a mile and a half from the tracks. I’ve always found it a little bit comforting to hear the trains passing in the distance. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/48 "2007-03-20T04:26:59Z")
Maybe 50 feet. [Here.](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=111+N+Clifton+Ave,+Louisville,+KY+40206&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.36116,80.15625&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=38.255226,-85.706073&spn=0.002822,0.008411&t=k&om=0&iwloc=addr) Fairly busy freight tracks. After the first week in the house we never noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/49 "2007-03-20T04:46:12Z")
[This](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=37+bluecoat,+irvine+ca&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.934478,105.292969&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=19&ll=33.713593,-117.765978&spn=0.000707,0.002486&t=h&om=1&iwloc=addr)is my parent’s old house. That windy path behind it is a green belt. When they moved in, it was a train track. I don’t think you can get much closer. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/50 "2007-03-20T06:09:54Z")
I live two blocks from the local train station. It has commuter lines, freight lines and bullet train lines. Click for overhead shot: [Google Maps](http://tinyurl.com/2yv59k) ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/51 "2007-03-20T18:06:53Z")
I hope this isn’t too much of a hijack. I’ve never lived close to railroad tracks, but if I did my constant worry would be, "_what if the train derails and crashes into my house?!"_ I realize this is probably not any more likely to happen than to have a plane fall out of the sky and crash through my roof, but still, the danger is there and the chance would be nonzero. Did any of you people living close to the tracks have this concern? ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/52 "2007-03-20T18:22:19Z")
An old girlfriend in New Brunswick NJ sublet an apartment near the Northeast Corridor tracks – about 40 feet from the looks of it on Google Maps, plus it was a third-floor apartment and at eye level with the trackbed. It was freaking loud – one commuter train an hour or so, plus Amtrak trains that would really roar through – but I wasn’t there enough to see if I would get used to it. It didn’t seem to be causing any structural damage to the house, but the windows (and glasses in cabinets) did rattle. I lived in a house in Austin whose backyard abutted train tracks, but there was only a handful of poky freight trains a day. It was also in the flight path of the old airport, and you could practically see people’s faces the planes came over so close. That was loud enough that you had to pause in a phone call for ten seconds or so because it was too loud to hear anything. And just on the other side of the tracks was a pretty busy road. The trifecta. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427/53 "2007-03-20T18:43:25Z")
When I was little, we lived in North Hatley, Quebec for a year. Our property was bounded to the rear by a railroad track. I used to stay up late at night and watch the trains pass by; I would fall asleep and Mom would find me at the window and put me to bed. When I lived in St. Henri here in Montreal, my neighbourhood was bounded on either side by railroad tracks 580 metres apart. One, the AMT commuter line, was on the escarpment above us 280 metres away, on the other side of the autoroute; the other, the CN line, was adjacent to the metro station 250 metres away. We were on the wrong side of _two_ tracks! And the linear park near my house used to be yet another set of train tracks (they feature in Gabrielle Roy’s _The Tin Flute_). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-have-you-lived-to-a-train/396427.md?page=2)