Buying house near tracks / Kent House station

[gimmea50anyday]

I got used to everything except the diesels (mainly 50s and 33s on the Salisbury and Exeters) of which the drivers, in the down direction, had a habit of opening the throttle after the speed restriction through the station just as they passed my house.

Oh, I’d imagine Some people could quite easily get used to habits such as that......

 

[gimmea50anyday]

For the benefit of the OP the sound of passing trains is far less obtrusive than being under Heathrow’s final approach or near the A40/M4 westway or north circular for (extreme) examples, plus the railways around there are predominantly electric. Except for very occasional night time engineering or maintenance which Network Rail do give warning of, you would hardly notice the railway was there. I would follow the suggestion of taking the train passed the area and give the streets a good scouting around as mentioned above just to reassure yourself. Perhaps find a local line side hotel and book in for a night may also help

 

[Bedpan]

For the benefit of the OP the sound of passing trains is far less obtrusive than being under Heathrow’s final approach or near the A40/M4 westway or north circular for (extreme) examples, plus the railways around there are predominantly electric. Except for very occasional night time engineering or maintenance which Network Rail do give warning of, you would hardly notice the railway was there. I would follow the suggestion of taking the train passed the area and give the streets a good scouting around as mentioned above just to reassure yourself. Perhaps find a local line side hotel and book in for a night may also help

So true, we went to Northcote Road near Clapham Junction not long ago. It is under the flight path of plans approaching Heathrow and there was constant aircraft noise, with the noise of the following plane drowning out the noise of the previous one after it had passed over, I don't think that I could live with that sort of noise but obviously lots of people do. Plus, Northcote Road is 12 miles from the airport, so it must get even noisier as you travel west.

Usually after living in a new area for a time, your brain habituates so that the noise of traffic/trains gets tuned out. This is how people can generally live near industrial estates or airports

Also true. It is amazing how an unusual noise, however quiet, even something like a dripping tap will wake you up.

 

[urbophile]

I knew someone who lived backing onto the District line Wimbledon branch. There was an ongoing strike on London Underground and his boss had agreed it wasn't worth the hassle of trying to get to work when the trains weren't running (I know, that was many years ago!). He said to himself that he would know when the strike was over when he heard the trains again. It was only when his boss phoned half way through the next day to ask why he wasn't in work that he realised the trains were running, and had been all that day. He'd got so used to the trains in the years he lived there that he just wasn't aware that they were running or not.

 

[30907]

Reminded by another thread that there has been a suggestion to extend the Kent House loops further at each end. However that's unlikely to affect your property.

 

[DelW]

It is not the gross weight of the lorry it is the "axle" weight.
In the same way that a 2-6-0 steam locomotive weighing 100 tons gross equals 25 tons axle weight.
If the maximum vehicle weight of a lorry is 44 tons then it would not be able to transport a steam locomotive weighing 100 tons.

The maximum legal weight of a normal lorry (not a specially adapted one like you refer) is 44T normally spread over 5 or 6 axles (so axle load of 6-9T) nothing like the 25T axle load of a train.

The maximum permitted axle weight for road vehicles in Britain is 12 tonnes. Mobile cranes generally operate at that limit as manufacturers add as much on-board ballast weight as they can within the limit.
Normal lorries are indeed under 10 tonnes per axle. The low loaders that move locomotives and other extra-heavy loads have multiple axles under both tractor and trailer units. Even so they are restricted in their permitted routes, for instance to avoid overloading bridges.

 

[gimmea50anyday]

Slightly off topic but Donington Park is practically at the end of the runway at west end of East Mids airport. Monday morning 7am when the first 747 freighter takes off and ascends over Donington park, the racket from the 4 CF6 engines waking up 85000 drunk and hungover revellers at Download Festival!!! Chuck out time!!!

 

[RichT54]

For the benefit of the OP the sound of passing trains is far less obtrusive than being under Heathrow’s final approach or near the A40/M4 westway or north circular for (extreme) examples, plus the railways around there are predominantly electric. Except for very occasional night time engineering or maintenance which Network Rail do give warning of, you would hardly notice the railway was there. I would follow the suggestion of taking the train passed the area and give the streets a good scouting around as mentioned above just to reassure yourself. Perhaps find a local line side hotel and book in for a night may also help

When I worked at Heathrow in the 70s I and a couple of colleagues shared a house in Hounslow right under the approach to the northern runway (28R back then, 27R now). The noise was incredible, with the aircraft passing directly overhead at a few hundred feet; but we did get used to it and even managed to sleep during the day, before and after night shifts, even though the house had no double glazing.

One day some friends called round while the aircraft were landing on the other runway. We were chatting away when I suddenly noticed a look of absolute horror on their faces. "What's the matter?" I asked. "The noise! how the hell can you stand it!!?" was the reply. The airport had just switched runways and I hadn't consciously noticed it. "Oh you get used to it" I said, "Unless it's Concorde, they make everything rattle".

 

[gg1]

My partner grew up in a house that backs onto the Cross City line in South Birmingham and lived there between the mid 80s and late 90s, her mum still lives there now. They both say the same as previous posters here, you genuinely don't notice the noise at all.

To give a little context this is a busy section of line with currently upwards of 20 trains per hour for most of the day, both passenger and freight.

 

[RichT54]

When I worked in Hook, Hampshire I did used to notice when trains went past on the nearby line. It wasn't because I heard them, it was because they made the floor bounce slightly. The building was typical business park structure with a steel skeleton, located about 100m from the line at its nearest point. My desk was on the first floor, and about equidistant between the supporting columns. It didn't happen with all trains, so I assume there was some sort of resonance effect due to the speed of the train. Colleagues with desks closer to the supporting pillars didn't notice anything.

 

[nlogax]

So far in my lifetime I’ve lived in at least three different houses that backed directly onto rail lines and in each situation I found it comforting, even blissful. I rather fancy doing it again tbh.

 

[Metal_gee_man]

Having limited experience, but having experienced disruptive rail noise for 5 nights, just check there are no tight curves or junctions or points right outside your garden because they will create noise, knowing the line I very much doubt standard running on straight track will even be noticeable.

The reason I mention the above is I stayed in Raynes Park at a Travelodge, sadly Raynes Park has a junction and curve off to Chessington and Leatherhead and every 15 minutes a Class 455/456 would leave the mainline and the wheel squeal and points noises were unbearable, the first and last trains woke me up everytime, I must also mention the hotel is comfortably 100m from the embankment with fences and trees for protection. So not all properties are suited to being lineside

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Depending on what you call "tight", the curves at Kent House are reasonable (in my view) and don't cause squeal. I don't know the specific radii but mainline trains run through at least 60mph at a guess. Not that many trains use the loops routinely on a daily basis.

However, if the wind blows in the right direction and I choose to listen, I can hear 378's climb the gradient out of Sydenham, towards Crystal Palace (which crosses the "Kent House line" at Penge East along with the 700s speeding through.

 

[Nicks]

I've seen some complaints about an area where residents have been annoyed as their house overlooks an area where passenger diesel locomotives were being stabled - engines were being left running for hours - I think this was a temporary arrangement though.

 

[55002]

When I worked at Heathrow in the 70s I and a couple of colleagues shared a house in Hounslow right under the approach to the northern runway (28R back then, 27R now). The noise was incredible, with the aircraft passing directly overhead at a few hundred feet; but we did get used to it and even managed to sleep during the day, before and after night shifts, even though the house had no double glazing.

One day some friends called round while the aircraft were landing on the other runway. We were chatting away when I suddenly noticed a look of absolute horror on their faces. "What's the matter?" I asked. "The noise! how the hell can you stand it!!?" was the reply. The airport had just switched runways and I hadn't consciously noticed it. "Oh you get used to it" I said, "Unless it's Concorde, they make everything rattle".

True that, I lived in Richmond so directly under flight path for half the day and backing directly onto railway. You get used to the noise. Except like yourself Concorde, that was noisy and thing of beauty. I used to sleep in summer with windows open so you’d have the trains and planes from 0430 but didn’t notice them. God knows how, went back to mates in Windsor years after and as soon as first plane arrived had no chance of getting back to sleep. So noisy.. it’s a busy line at Kent house though, definitely worth visit to see what you think.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

it’s a busy line at Kent house though, definitely worth visit to see what you think.

It's not that busy compared to say, the WCML or GWML. The OP can easily look up on RTT, or other sites to get an idea of frequency.

And 99.99% of trains that run through Kent House are electric - thus, much quieter than diesel trains/locomotives

The area is on the flight path to Heathrow but the planes are still relatively high enough to not be intrusive

 

[nlogax]

The area is on the flight path to Heathrow but the planes are still relatively high enough to not be intrusive

That area is directly under the Biggin stack, so jet noise not so evident as they're not anywhere near full chat on descent. It's just the quantity of them in the stack at any one time.

(not at the moment of course..)

 

[Economist]

It'll probably be better than a road junction most of the time, I used to live near a fairly big road junction in the capital and I nicknamed it "Cairo Junction" due to the number of times road drivers would sound their horn. I suspect much of it stemmed from either people being in the wrong lane and thereby cutting someone up, or people not merging properly since the main road through the junction had two lanes into one on both sides.

The only time there will be a lot of railway noise is if there are permanent way/engineering staff about. If the line stays open, there will be plenty of train horn noise (we are required to sound the train horn when we see staff on track), or if the line is closed there could be heavy machinery operating. If the place is right next to the station, expect to hear the somewhat quieter whine of traction motors.

At most places in London there's quite a lot of ambient noise, if the OP is looking for somewhere quieter, Kent/Sussex/Surrey might be a better choice, there's quite a few fast trains into Victoria/Blackfriars which won't take much longer than a Kent House stopper.