Train tracks and shared driveways (2 questions)

cattie

If you do a search on the housebuying forum you will find quite a few posts about the nightmare situations that can occur with shared driveways.

Katpin

We viewed a house with a railway line at the 'bottom' of the garden - raised so it was nearly level with the first floor and about 10/20 metres from the house.

Train went passed while we were there and it was very loud - totally put us off.

The question I would say is how long are you intending to live in this house? Because regardless of what people say it will ultimately be more difficult to sell it with a railway line next to it.

Shared driveways do not off put people in the same way (in my personal opinion). I know a number of people with them and none have a problem. As others have said just depends on who you are sharing with.

lizards

Many years ago I rented a flat that overlooked a station for a few years as a student. The trains passing by weren't an issue particularly (yes, you do get used to it) but the trains being cleaned all night long - that was bad. What I hadn't realised was that the station was also a depot, and in order to clean the (diesel) trains, they had to leave the engines running to power the lights. It was like having a massive truck right outside the window all night. Awful.

Aside from that it was often nice to watch the trains go by - there was quite a variety and I remember well the time the Orient Express was parked outside for a few hours! But I wouldn't move to near a railway line again as we have cats now. I had several friends when I was growing up with a railway line at the bottom of their garden and their cats never lasted more than a few years. One friend's mother swore she saw them playing chicken!

davenport151

I remember a similar thread to this. To echo what others have said- Go when theres likely to be a train, check the timetables for frequency. Check out some of the train enthusiast websites (do a google search) that will also indicte regular freight passings/maintenance vehicles. Also bear in mind changes to summer/winter timetables.
Is it a main line or branch line? Mainline = frequent services. Branch= less often possibly one/two per hour.
Wouldnt bother me, my son loves trains> In fact I would rather noise like that that the noisy neighbors I have next door!