Buying house near track - Crofton Park station

Lucineh · 19 Jun 2021

Hi - we are considering buying a house that backs onto the train tracks between Crofton Park (5 minutes walk) and Brockley station (9 minutes walk) on Howson road. Garden is quite long (53ft) with trees and an unused plot of land between garden and rail.

The Brockley Line is sunken so noise seems very limited. But the Catford Loop Line seemed quite a bit noisier when I visited the house. Would love your advice, particularly is you know the area or that particular line.

Would you buy close to the Catford loop track? I tried to check how many freight trains were passing by and when but I did not really understand the information on the website.

Your thoughts would be really appreciated!

RailUK Forums

61653 HTAFC · 19 Jun 2021

I'm sure many of us on here would buy that, but then most of us like trains so it might not be all that informative!

Scotrail314209 · 19 Jun 2021

From my understanding, the Catford Loop seems very low speed as it's rather bendy. It shouldn't be too bad.

jopsuk · 19 Jun 2021

Scotrail314209 said:
From my understanding, the Catford Loop seems very low speed as it's rather bendy. It shouldn't be too bad.

low speed curvy track can be bad for noise...

Andy Pacer · 19 Jun 2021

I'm sure you would soon get used to any noise, I certainly have where I live which is next to the Midland Mainline at a junction.

stuu · 19 Jun 2021

I used to live in Croxted Road in Herne Hill, which backs onto the railway. You barely notice the trains after a couple of days

30907 · 19 Jun 2021

If you look on (e.g.) RealTrainTimes you can ask it to show Freight services only.

This is a search for a few days ago and it shows which of the many possible trains actually ran - which is not many! https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...6/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt&toc=ZZ

Edit: the worst noise - from family and forum comments - is likely to be when engineering work takes place. NR are pretty good about warning local residents in advance though.

(PS times at Crofton Pk only show up at short notice as they are estimated; if you want to look ahead, Bellingham is a scheduled timing point for all trains on the Catford Loop and no other routes.)

Mintona · 19 Jun 2021

It’s not a hugely busy line for freight but there’s a bit. Plenty of passenger services though.

Peregrine 4903 · 19 Jun 2021

There are 6 passenger trains per hour off peak. It might be 5 at the minute due to covid reduced timetable but there is usually 6.

There are quite a few freight paths, but the vast majority of them are channel tunnel freight paths from Dollands Moor and practically none of them run.

colchesterken · 20 Jun 2021

I wanted to buy the crossing keepers bungalow at Jays lane, Marks Tey about 20m the GEML they would not sell it to me as they said it was too close to the 25kw wires
They demolished it to provide access for road railers for track works,

Busaholic · 21 Jun 2021

stuu said:
I used to live in Croxted Road in Herne Hill, which backs onto the railway. You barely notice the trains after a couple of days

The Eurostars going to Waterloo Int. used to be the noisiest , but I was always pleased to see them! Engineering works night after night, on the other hand (and, with the track raised, the LIGHTS as well as the noise)...! Went to school overlooking Catford Station and train noise never a problem, but then I wasn't there at night.

lancastria · 21 Jun 2021

Lucineh said:
Hi - we are considering buying a house that backs onto the train tracks between Crofton Park (5 minutes walk) and Brockley station (9 minutes walk) on Howson road. Garden is quite long (53ft) with trees and an unused plot of land between garden and rail.

The Brockley Line is sunken so noise seems very limited. But the Catford Loop Line seemed quite a bit noisier when I visited the house. Would love your advice, particularly is you know the area or that particular line.

Would you buy close to the Catford loop track? I tried to check how many freight trains were passing by and when but I did not really understand the information on the website.

Your thoughts would be really appreciated!

I know the area well.
If you don't like trains, don't buy the property.
You'll have trains constantly between 5.30am and 1am.
Almost all the trains are EMUs, which are really quiet, you'll hardly hear them.
You'll get the occasional diesel=hauled freight or engineer train. They are noisy, but so rare for that spot as to be irrelevant.

Morpethcurve · 22 Jun 2021

In 1970 when I was 10, we moved to a house overlooking the midpoint of the Morpeth curve (On Low Stobhill). For a week or so we were without carpets and found that we could draw pencil lines around furniture legs to see how much they moved overnight. Even before the carpets went down the whole family had got accustomed to the trains overnight, and with carpets it was a non-event. Trains caused far more vibration in those days than today.

You don't say whether you're a rail enthusiast but even if not, your only possible risk is the feelings of buyers when you eventually sell!

miklcct · 22 Jun 2021

Andy Pacer said:
I'm sure you would soon get used to any noise, I certainly have where I live which is next to the Midland Mainline at a junction.

This is not true. People moving to new buildings near a century-old Kowloon Canton Railway (the mainline railway in Hong Kong built to British standard) are complaining about train noises which eventually leads the railway company to set up a lot of (permanent) temporary speed restrictions, which significant increased the running times of trains by more than 10% for the whole railway line between Hung Hom and Lo Wu.

Andy Pacer · 22 Jun 2021

miklcct said:
This is not true. People moving to new buildings near a century-old Kowloon Canton Railway (the mainline railway in Hong Kong built to British standard) are complaining about train noises which eventually leads the railway company to set up a lot of (permanent) temporary speed restrictions, which significant increased the running times of trains by more than 10% for the whole railway line between Hung Hom and Lo Wu.

I was giving my experience of living near a track, and getting used to the noise, which isn't a lie!
Not sure about the Hong Kong significance.

miklcct · 22 Jun 2021

Andy Pacer said:
I was giving my experience of living near a track, and getting used to the noise, which isn't a lie!
Not sure about the Hong Kong significance.

The problem of train noise affecting line speed appears in mainstream news in Hong Kong every now and then:

港鐵大圍段慢駛減噪音 - 東方日報

orientaldaily.on.cc

This is a 2011 article quoting speed reduction near Tai Wai from 80 km/h to 70 km/h due to noise complaints.

東鐵旺角東路段慢駛減噪音　或增行車時間　九龍塘站月台勢塞上塞

列車行駛時發出的聲浪對附近民居或造成滋擾，港鐵近日疑在東鐵線旺角東站附近，全天候將臨時車速限制由50公里收緊至30公里...

www.hk01.com

This is a 2016 article quoting speed reduction near Mong Kok East from 50 km/h to 30 km/h due to noise complaints.

The railway company always claim that the speed reduction will only add about half a minute into the running time, but in effect, because of the congestion brought from reducing line speed, the actual journey time can be increased by as much as 6 minutes!!!!!!!!! and it has resulted in headway reduction in peak hours, making the train even more packed that passengers are having trouble squeezing into the 12-car train set!

Please imagine when the railway is just metres from your house, and trains run every 3-4 minutes from 05:30 in the morning to 00:45 midnight (that's true - the railway is operating at 3-4 minutes headway even late into the night!). The rail company has already installed a lot of noise barriers covering the tracks recently, but there are still sections where this isn't possible.

jfisher21 · 22 Jun 2021

Looking at Howson Road I would expect the Brockley line to produce noise as the trains are frequent there with many fast through trains. I would make sure you check it out on a weekday.

Buying house near track - Crofton Park station

Lucineh

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61653 HTAFC

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Scotrail314209

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jopsuk

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Andy Pacer

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stuu

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30907

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Mintona

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Peregrine 4903

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colchesterken

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Busaholic

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lancastria

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Morpethcurve

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Andy Pacer

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港鐵大圍段慢駛減噪音 - 東方日報

東鐵旺角東路段慢駛減噪音　或增行車時間　九龍塘站月台勢塞上塞

jfisher21

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