Night Freight - Request for information

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Hi,

I'm considering buying a house which lies right next to the Shrewsbury to Crewe line, and the only possible drawback for the family is train noise in the middle of the night. Is there any way of finding out how much freight traffic runs at night along this line (say, between midnight and 8am)? Finding out about passenger movements is no problem, but I have no idea how to get accurate information on freight (and I don't think asking the sellers is a good idea!).

Any help on this much appreciated!

TOTD

 

[Metroland]

I *think* that line is used overnight. The only way to find out would be to access freightmaster online unless someone helpful comes along with access to TRUST.

http://www.freightmaster.net/

Generally speaking the following lines are 24 hour hours and have overnight freight, ECS and Passenger workings, but people might want to add more, or correct me: Plymouth-Paddington, Bristol-S Wales and Fishguard, Berks and Hants, Bournemouth-Reading-Oxford-Birmingham, Brighton main line, SR main lines that are power signalled, Liverpool Street-Norwich, Harwich and Felixstowe lines, Liverpool Street-Ely-March-Peterborough, ECML, Peterborough-Birmingham, lines to Humberside, Midland main line, Doncaster-Sheffield-Humberside, Northallerton-Teeside, WCML, Birmingham-Derby, Crewe-S Wales, North and South Transpennine lines, main lines round Liverpool and Manchester, West Highland line, Highland main line, Central Scotland, and Glasgow area.

PS Freight traffic changes all the time, very few trains run fixed paths, all the time.

 

[Legzr1]

PS Freight traffic changes all the time, very few trains run fixed paths, all the time.

That's the main point - just because there's no freight today,last week or last year means nothing in the shady world of FOC's.

 

[Metroland]

All depends what's going on: For example, power stations have closure times and require more coal at certain times of the year. Steel traffic depends what's going on with the economy, as does Roadstone. Freightliner traffic is quite unstable as well, all depends on the demand for goods.

Generally there is less freight at holiday times, and extra on the run up to holidays.

Some nightshifts can be a continuous stream of freight on some lines, one train after the other, others nights there can be next to nothing, or very moderate flows.

 

[First class]

Are you sure you're just not looking for freight times?

If so, you can go to http://www.freightmaster.net/

 

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Are you sure you're just not looking for freight times?

Yes thanks! Buying this house is a big deal to us so it makes sense to seek information from as many people as we can. I meant to start threads on both sites on the same day but I ran out of time - I realize that it may seem ungrateful to the folks on Railchat to start the thread here when there has been a great response on there, but it's not intended that way!

By the way, if I was just seeking freight times, what reason would there be not to just ask that openly? Sorry if that's a naive question, but I'm new here!

 

[First class]

As I've said, as RailChat have given you the rough times already, there's not much more we can add.

You should contact Network Rail for help for more detailed information.

Ultimately, if you buy a house next to the railway, mothballed or not, you should expect noise at all hours of the day. The railway was probably there before the house!
Essentially, it doesn't really matter what goes on the line at the moment, because next week, next month, next decade, could see services increase dramatically. Looking at todays workings will not give you an accurate portrayal of what is yet to come.

 

[laird]

Having lived next to railways, the sea and under the flightpath to a major airport I can assure you that while for the first 48 hours of owning your house you will hear the trains after that you won't even notice unless there is something really out of course going on. - That has certainly been my experience even though I'm a transport enthusiast and so am tuned to hear trains, planes and so forth.

Please don't worry about the potential noise, look at the railway as being a good neighbour, every now and then you might here something but apart from that they keep the fence in good order and are for 90% of the day absolutely silent.

Strangely the noise arising from using the road to your front door will probably be more disturbing than the railway ever will be to you.

 

[Hoyerman]

Can't agree more with the above - I spent 10 years living with the Paisley - Greenock line at the bottom of my garden (8 trains/hour approx 05.30 - 01.00 plus odds & ends overnight) and didn't really notice it after the first 24 hours. Strangely enough the southbound sleeper from Fort William (2 miles away on the other side of the River Clyde) was much more noticable...

One word of warning - a lot of P-Way work takes place in the dead of night, weekends and holidays and you will notice that... we had 6 months of rock drilling from 01.00 - 05.00 as they worked to stabilise the rock face and install rock netting on the approach to the local tunnel - imagine 50 men abseiling from the end of your back garden, floodlights, vans, compressors, and drills etc every night...!!!

Hope it works out for you!

H

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I have the same experience.

I had relatives who lived under 100mtrs from the main line between Edinburgh Waverly and the depot (St Margarets?). Back in steam days, when most trains required a few locomotive movements, I couldn't beleive that they didn't find the noise intrusive. But they didn't; and one of them is still alive and in the same house, completely oblivious to the railway.

Later, I lived in a house which backed onto the GWML in east London. Again, the noise became unnoticed, but that was in the days of vinyl records, and the vibration did cause records to jump! We noticed THAT!

I also used to visit friends who lived in a house directly facing the A5 in Hertfordshire - they slept at the rear and I was in the, er, guest room, at the front. Impossible to sleep with all those trucks passing outside all night long.

I also used to visit a cottage in the middle of nothing but agricultural land for 10 or more miles in any direction. And 3 miles from the ECML. I would wake several times a night on account of road traffic. Never on account of the railway. Twice from an owl.

Based on my experience, its a much easier life with a railway nearby than a roadway.

 

[142094]

We live around 100m from the ECML and Metro lines, but there isn't much noise as we're barriered by a church. The most I can hear is the underground rumblings, and sometimes it is clear enough to know what type of unit is passing by! Even in York where I live about 1.5 miles away from the station I can still hear HST, 225 and TPE 185s horns when the wind is blowing in the right direction.

 

[googolplex]

My parents live just across the road from the railway, and as others have said, after a little while you don't notice it.
We did however find the engineering works could be quite intrusive as the guys we had didn't make much of an effort to keep the noise down (shouting to each other even when the tools weren't going)

 

[mickey]

My parents live just across the road from the railway, and as others have said, after a little while you don't notice it.
We did however find the engineering works could be quite intrusive as the guys we had didn't make much of an effort to keep the noise down (shouting to each other even when the tools weren't going)

Ditto. We've got no freight but frequently have overnight ECS movements and not even they disturb you. Funnily enough, and only those in a similar position will understand this, you only really notice the trains when they're not there - Christmas/Boxing Day and the occasional Sunday engineering works are always conspicuous!

Overnight works can get noisy though, particularly around stations (where even simple things like repainting can be noisy when lazy workmen are around...), but these happen infrequently enough for it not to be a problem. Living next to the railway has many more advantages than disadvantages!

 

[daikilo]

Hi,

I'm considering buying a house which lies right next to the Shrewsbury to Crewe line, and the only possible drawback for the family is train noise in the middle of the night. Is there any way of finding out how much freight traffic runs at night along this line (say, between midnight and 8am)? Finding out about passenger movements is no problem, but I have no idea how to get accurate information on freight (and I don't think asking the sellers is a good idea!).

Any help on this much appreciated!

TOTD

I have lived with my family for over 30 years within 80m of one or other moderately busy line busy line and have only ever been woken twice
- once when the line was being tamped
- once when a coal train did an emergency stop through the local level crossing. When it restarted I went back to sleep.
Noone else in the family even noticed either!

However, I have been woken by at least 10 car accidents, including two where I dressed and went to help the occupants, and at least 4 arson attacks on cars with explosions of tyres and/or fuel tanks (it keeps me awake until the fire brigade arrive).

I'd choose the rail line over roads junctions, bends and public car parks any night.

 

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Thank you so much for all the replies - lots of useful points made. We're going to take the plunge...

If in a couple of months I start writing posts during the wee small hours of the night, you'll know that the night freight movements were more intrusive than hoped for!

 

[tripleseis]

I have relatives that live next to the North Downs Line between Reading and Wokingham. You only notice it when you're out in their back garden which backs onto the line. The main road at the end of their street is much noisier.