I’m about fifteen miles away from Metro tracks now, but where I grew up, we were within a quarter mile of three different railroad crossings for freight trains. The only thing separating our house and the tracks was a small cornfield, and my elementary school was right next to the tracks. At the beginning of every year, we would start counting the number of trains that went by per day (before we got tired of counting around October). It usually averaged out to ten or twelve trains just during the school hours, so there are about twenty a day.
When I away went to summer camp for the first time, it was a little weird never hearing trains go by.
Let’s see. There’s a rail yard approximately 1/3 mile east of me. There’s an elevated CTA line about 3/4 mile south of me, as well as a freight line below it. If I walk due west, there is another rail line 3/4 mile there, as well. If I walk due north, I hit another freight line as well as Metra communer rail in about 3/4 mile.
Just under two miles from a freight line. I learned from the town planner that, on average, 130 trains go through per day. It’s striking to me that I never notice hearing anything during the day, but often hear them at night (I like it, it’s neat). Are things in the neighborhood that much quieter at night?
About 750 feet from the nearest elevated track, 800 feet from the nearest CTA station, and maybe 825 feet from the nearest Metra commuter station. I can hear them when I have my windows open, but it doesn’t really disturb my sleep. There are no whistles, but sometimes I hear the pleasant “Ding Dong…doors closing” recording from the el trains.
We live maybe 2½ miles from the nearest tracks. We hear the night train if we have the widows open. I love it. Always reminds me of the Paul Simon song “Train in the Distance”.
Across the alley and up one story from the Red and Purple El tracks. It’s getting quieter since they’ve started rolling out the new Red Line trains. Instead of a clunky, “cachunka-chunk” sound, they make a sort of metallic whooshing noise that’s much softer. Now if they’d just get new ones for the Purple Line, which is the closest track to me and is usually going faster, so louder, but I only notice it during the couple of rushiest rush hours around 5-7 in the evening.
If I walk 1 mile, I’ll have crossed three sets of train tracks, hitting the first about 1/4 mile in. Doesn’t bother me at all because I’m not close enough to hear the noise. What I do hear all the time is the bus line, as I live on the corner of a major road, but that still doesn’t bother me. I find background noise strangely comforting.
About 1.5 miles (2.2 km) from my house to the nearest street crossing of the freight tracks that run through Boulder. Trains come through a few times a day, including, usually, one in the middle of the night. Mostly just hear the horn in the distance when we have the windows open (during all non-daylight hours in the summer). Never been a problem.
Half a mile, but I only hear them if I’m somehow outside after midnight. Other times the traffic in between drowns their sounds out. Although in the interests of full disclosure, I used to live in an apartment whose front door was less than 100 feet from a train track. And I used to wonder if the trains ever came by at night.
Then I pulled an all-nighter to finish a report and discovered that not only did trains come by, they coupled and uncoupled right there by the apartment. It was amazingly loud, but I had always slept through it, and I continued to sleep through it after knowing that it happened. My capacity to ignore things is mighty.
A Union Pacific freight-only line is about a mile and a half to the east, with a branch about the same distance due south. I can hear the horns blowing for road crossings and and, if I listen carefully, the locomotives themselves, but nowhere near loud enough to be disturbing.
Except for a couple years each in Denver and in southern California, I’ve always lived within earshot of a railroad. I find it comforting to hear that lonesome whistle blow, late at night.