Ex Physics Teacher claims "children 'being shaken out of bed' by train noise"

[route:oxford]

A former Physics teacher is claiming that the noise from freight trains is shaking children out of their beds.

CHILDREN are being 'shaken out of their beds in the middle of the night' because of noise from freight trains running through north Oxford, according to a city MP.

Layla Moran asked transport minister Jo Johnson on Thursday whether he could discuss problems with the trains and whether they could be monitored and their speeds reduced.

But Mr Johnson said that was reliant on whether Network Rail decided to reduce them.

Ms Moran asked Mr Johnson: "Residents in North Oxford are gravely concerned about the increase in rail freight and particularly the possibility of the line being used to construct HS2.

"Children are already shaken out of their beds in the middle of the night because of freight trains.

"Will the Minister consent to meet me to discuss the concerns and, critically, the solutions, which include monitoring and speed reductions for the trains?"

Mr Johnson said he 'obviously sympathised' with residents' concerns but said the Government is 'committed to getting freight off roads and onto rail to realise the environmental and economic benefits of rail freight'.

He added: "However, the Department does not specify the level of freight services on the network, as that is a commercial matter for the freight operating companies and is a function of market demand. The Oxford area is at capacity during the day, although the Oxford corridor capacity improvement scheme will deliver two additional freight train paths an hour in each direction."

It seems very unlikely.

I appreciate, from my younger days, that a deep bass in a nightclub can set a glass sliding about a table - but surely freight noise isn't intense and continuous enough to glide a child (probably wearing cotton on cotton sheets) out of a bed.

http://www.harwichandmanningtreesta...ren__being_shaken_out_of_bed__by_train_noise/

 

[trainmania100]

They're going to have to get used to it. Perhaps if they went to bed a bit earlier they'd be in deeper sleep

It's not going to be feasible doing 20-25 past a terrace of houses because the kids can't sleep

 

[Adlington]

A former Physics teacher is claiming that the noise from freight trains is shaking children out of their beds.

Why the former occupation of the complainer is relevant here?

 

[swt_passenger]

North Oxford politicians against the railway. Who’d have expected that, having followed all the criticisms of EWR and Chiltern etc.

On the other hand I do wonder why it’s big news in Manningtree?

 

[keith1879]

Perhaps because as someone who understands physics this claim should appear to be unlikely? My guess anyway.

 

[Glenmutchkin]

.......... (probably wearing cotton on cotton sheets) out of a bed.

Well known fact that academics buy their sheets from Brentford Nylons.

 

[furnessvale]

Why the former occupation of the complainer is relevant here?

Very relevant given the complete lack of knowledge of the laws of physics.

 

[John Webb]

I (as a physicist, albeit retired) am pretty certain vibrations from goods trains can't be strong enough to actually shake a child out of bed. I wonder if this is artistic licence by a journalist (or a mis-interpretation) where children have been woken by a passing train and got out of bed themselves......
I have known freight trains rumbling past a building leading to a false activation of a fire alarm 'break-glass' call point when the pre-incised glass plate in the call point eventually cracked.

 

[AlterEgo]

Why the former occupation of the complainer is relevant here?

Because it’s a physics teacher making an absurd claim that a freight train would shake a child from its bed, which would be governed by...the laws of physics.

 

[Warwick]

Freight trains shaking children out of their beds?
That's an interesting bull5h1t claim. Many moons ago I lived in a flat on Chamberlayne Road, Kensal Rise. Some people had fairies at the bottom of the garden. I had the North London Line. I used to close the front door at 07.23 and take the 07.25 to Highbury. The stone trains that used to come rumbling through at various hours literally rattling the windows and crockery on the dresser never bothered me. The only time that I ever noticed them - to use a negative term - was Christmas when nothing was running.
The physics teacher speaks like someone who wants to get noticed.

 

[Andyjs247]

Complete tosh. No wonder he’s an ex-teacher! If anything is strong enough to shake children from their beds the British Geological Survey would have something to say about it. Nothing to see here.

 

[Kite159]

Is it a case of:

Step 1 - Family buys house next to railway line
Step 2 - Family complains about said railway line generating noise?

 

[Timrud]

Did he realise the railway was there when he moved in? Idiot.

 

[richw]

My last 3 houses have been within 200 yards of the railway. Can’t see any of my 3 children have experienced this!

 

[Harbon 1]

I sometimes jump up out of bed (to the window) if I hear something EE

But neither me or my brothers have fallen out of bed in 18 years because of trains. I call BS

 

[randyrippley]

Just another thick MP indulging in hyperbole in an attempt to make herself a name

 

[randyrippley]

Did he realise the railway was there when he moved in? Idiot.

She, not he

 

[gaymale]

Back in the 1980's a friend's home had what was, at that time, a double track freight line at the bottom of his short garden. It was mainly coal traffic and, as loaded trains approached, the house did sometimes noticeably shake. He got used to it and it wasn't a problem although I found it a little disconcerting on the few occasions I was there and felt the vibration briefly before I saw or heard the train.

The only time he did suffer/complain was when the line was closed for maintenance overnight and a train was parked on one line while work was being done on the other. The diesel loco which hauled it was left ticking over hour after hour directly outside his house and no matter which room he went in there was no chance of getting any sleep. There was lighting illuminating the other track which I suppose could have been powered from the loco necessitating it to be kept running. "At least steam locos were relatively quiet beasts most of the time when stationary", he commented!

 

[broadgage]

Well known fact that academics buy their sheets from Brentford Nylons.

Nylon sheets are an abomination, inflicted on me in my childhood. Even if a parent DID inflict them on a child, I still don't believe that vibration from a passing train could possibly remove a child from its bed.
As others have said, don't move next to a railway if you are worried by the noise, I used to live near a busy railway line and the trains only disturbed me for the first few days.
"if these fire breathing iron monsters are allowed to roam the countryside at will, horses will become extinct, cows yield sour milk, hens cease to lay, country inns and taverns go bankrupt, and crops be destroyed by fire"

Or to bring the above up to date, "homes will fall in value, newts and bats be endangered, and children thrown from their beds"

 

[DarloRich]

A former Physics teacher is claiming that the noise from freight trains is shaking children out of their beds.

And my repsonse to that claim is: aye aye, whatever.

 

[grumblingalong]

My bedroom is all of about 6ft from the running line on jointed track. Never have I been shaken out of bed by a passing train. Any inconvenience I experience from passing trains I put down to me having bought a house in such proximity to a railway line, which I wouldn't consider rocket science, so why some don't seem able to draw the same conclusion about their purchases puzzles me somewhat.

 

[nedchester]

I'm an ex-physics teacher and I assert that this story is complete b*****ks! (that's not a scientific term)!

 

[mallard]

It's pretty darned obvious to anyone who read more than the headline that "shaken out of bed" does not mean literally thrown across the room by vibrations (Seriously? Is everyone here intentionally being obtuse?). They're talking about people being awoken by the noise/vibrations of heavy night-time freight trains.

I can sympathise with that, I once stayed in the Youth Hostel that's right next to Oxford railway station on a hot summer's night when closing the windows simply wasn't a sensible option. I was awoken several times during the night by noisy freight trains (not that I minded too much as a rail enthusiast).

Most other industries are subject to noise controls. No reason why railways should be any different and of course, sending more freight through Oxford is a direct result of the desire to keep noisy and polluting diesels out of London. Yet another way that "the provinces" are screwed over by the London-first British government.

 

[DarloRich]

It's pretty darned obvious to anyone who read more than the headline that "shaken out of bed" does not mean literally thrown across the room by vibrations (Seriously? Is everyone here intentionally being obtuse?). They're talking about people being awoken by the noise/vibrations of heavy night-time freight trains.

it is fairly obvious what was meant and I still think it is bull.

Most other industries are subject to noise controls. No reason why railways should be any different and of course, sending more freight through Oxford is a direct result of the desire to keep noisy and polluting diesels out of London. Yet another way that "the provinces" are screwed over by the London-first British government.

woah - tin foil alert!

 

[nedchester]

I also think that if you buy a house next to a railway line then you have to expect some noise.

 

[pemma]

I also think that if you buy a house next to a railway line then you have to expect some noise.

Agreed. However, as someone who used to work in office right next to a railway line close to a station, it's very different having a passenger train going through at low speed on approach/leaving a station it stops at and a freight train passing through carrying many wagons of limestone. If the freight is introduced after you buy the house and includes a middle of the night working then I think you have grounds to complain.

 

[delticdave]

It's pretty darned obvious to anyone who read more than the headline that "shaken out of bed" does not mean literally thrown across the room by vibrations (Seriously? Is everyone here intentionally being obtuse?). They're talking about people being awoken by the noise/vibrations of heavy night-time freight trains.

I can sympathise with that, I once stayed in the Youth Hostel that's right next to Oxford railway station on a hot summer's night when closing the windows simply wasn't a sensible option. I was awoken several times during the night by noisy freight trains (not that I minded too much as a rail enthusiast).

Most other industries are subject to noise controls. No reason why railways should be any different and of course, sending more freight through Oxford is a direct result of the desire to keep noisy and polluting diesels out of London. Yet another way that "the provinces" are screwed over by the London-first British government.

Please explain how / where the freight trains that pass through Oxford could be diverted through London.
Bearing in mind that there are no cross-city freight routes in London & very few peripheral options either

DC.

 

[TommyD]

Nothing new surely. People adjust to their surroundings. Even in 1936 -

"Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.

In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in a bedroom gently shakes."*

*'Night Mail' W.H. Auden in case anyone didn't know

 

[pemma]

Complete tosh. No wonder he’s an ex-teacher! If anything is strong enough to shake children from their beds the British Geological Survey would have something to say about it. Nothing to see here.

Children can fall out of bed or almost fall out of bed without any vibrations so could not even a small vibration make the difference between one almost falling out of bed and one actually falling out bed? OK that isn't exactly what the article implies but when do politicians or journalists ever give all the facts when doing so would result in a less dramatic claim?

Given her former employer was Southbank International School she must have been a highly rated teacher.

 

[tom1649]

Why do so many complaints about noise from railways seem to come from the Oxford area?