Wholly smokes, new rental house and excessive train horns - this is going to be a nightmare!

So last night we spent our first night in a rental home and it was a complete disaster. For one, the place wasn't exceptionally clean and there are some broken items but that's the least of our worries. The weather was really nice, 60 degrees or so and we had the windows open. 10:30 PM and it's time for bed....or so we thought.

The first train rolls through at like 10:45. We can't hear the actual train, just the 15 second horn every time it goes through and it is LOUD! Windows go back down. This happens every 20-45 minutes until 1:30AM when I get some ear plugs.

It's really really really bad. It might be something we eventually get used to but there is no way in heck guests are going to be able to sleep at our place. I'm going to talk to the landlord and see if there is anyway to bail out of our lease or at least shorten it. If not, are their any GRM sound deadening techniques?

ear plugs?

I lived in a place like that in college. Tracks were 15' away from my window. Building shook when it went by. Sound was deafening.

You'd be surprised how thoroughly you will adjust. Got to the point where I never heard it.

You are correct, however, that your guests will never sleep. Mine would go running out of the room thinking it was an earthquake, while I stood there with a stupid look on my face saying, "What's wrong?"

Not a healthy place to live, even if you get used to it.

Meh, when I moved to college, I went from farm kid, to living a block and a half from the train track. Two road crossings within 2 or 3 blocks to either side of me, plenty of horn blowing. I lived on the 3rd floor above any of the houses between me and the track, so nothing to block the sound. I got used to it in about a week, and rarely if ever noticed it for the next 3+ years.

• Lee

Enyar wrote: are their any GRM sound deadening techniques?

Yep, buy a torch and cut up the tracks for scrap steel.......repeat as necessary until the railroad gives up.

Try living off the end of a runway. Bizjet turbojets are BERKING LOUD. You get used to it. Trust me.

How loud is it with the windows closed?

Honestly, you do get used to it. I lived no more than 100 feet from the RR tracks from 2008 through May 2012 (other than the summers and a 6 month stint living with the then girlfriend). But it was annoying not to be able to sleep with the windows open.

At one point, it was my alarm clock. Super annoying when it was late. I also grew to love super long freight trains when I was trying to fall asleep. The rythmic drone of the train was soothing, after the initial horn.

DaveEstey wrote: Not a healthy place to live, even if you get used to it.

Why not? (honest question)

I used to have F16s doing vertical liftoffs over my apartment. I've now slept through three earthquakes.

Get a fan.

I have a major train line about 1/2 mile from my place...they run 24/7, maybe 2 an hour. I run a small fan in my bedroom, and the 'white noise' tends to mask most of the train noise.

I second the fan, especially a box fan. Some white noise will definitely help at night.

I live 2 blocks from the railroad and I don't hear it anymore after being here for 8 months, but I stopped hearing it a few months ago.

My sister used to own a house with train tracks running just outside the backyard fence (maybe 50 ft from the house). She adjusted to it fine.

I stayed there watching the house one time... middle of the night.. holy crap!... I thought the world was ending...

The first house I bought in this country was 2 streets over from a railroad with a level crossing at the end of the block. First night I thought I'd made the biggest mistake of my life. No way was I ever going to get to sleep there. A week later I could manage the noise, 2 weeks later I didn't even notice it. By the time I moved out I would wake up in the new place at the time the train should be coming through as my sub conscious self was missing it.

Don't worry, in a couple of weeks you wont know the trains are there.

I live 3 blocks from a busy freight train track as well. We didn't know it when we bought the house. But, as mentioned, after a month we never heard it.

It's like living by an airport, busy road, etc.

mtn wrote:

DaveEstey wrote: Not a healthy place to live, even if you get used to it.

Why not? (honest question)

You get used to the stress. The stress doesn't go away.

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/14/136288954/noise-pollution-hard-on-heart-as-well-as-ears

My bedroom is 1521 feet from the busiest rail line in the Charleston area. When the port is busy, they run every 15-20 minutes.

You'll get used to it as long as you ignore it. Visitors will notice it, but even they will get use to them after a day or so.

In all honesty, I kind of like them. Every time the whistle blows, that's the economy in motion. If they ever stop, worry.

A rumble from train tracks I don't think would be that big of a deal and we can barely hear that. The loud part is the horn and how many toots/length of the toot/irregularity of the crossings . I wonder if my fiance is opposed to curtains made out of lead.

A white noise machine and some time is all you need.

In reply to Enyar:

We have two crossings within half a mile of us. You get used to the whistle as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S65lJGs7YC8

Anyone have any experience with devices such as:

http://www.amazon.com/Marpac-Dohm-DS-Speed-Sound-Conditioner/dp/B000KUHFGM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1389636485&sr=8-2&keywords=white+noise

I grew up in a house that was almost directly under the main flight path for an Air National Guard base, when Dad bought the house all they had were prop planes.

About 1963 or so they started flying F104 Starfighters. If you aren't aware, the F104 is known as one of the loudest planes ever built. They'd fly four hour patrols, when they took off they'd get just about even with the house then go into afterburner to get altitude fast. When the afterburners kicked in the popcorn ceilings in our house would shed plaster flakes. This was every four hours unless the prevailing winds changed in which case they'd use another runway and go rattle someone else's house.

I got used to that, I'd sleep right through it.

In reply to Enyar:

The wife has one she carries when staying in a hotel. In all honesty, it sounds like a $12 plastic fan.

My alarm clock has a built-in noise generator and it wasn't too expensive. I like to fall asleep to it.

Concerning noise, proper insulation of the house will help a lot with noise. Adding heavy duty curtains can help as well.