Noise protocols for overnight rail services

[TUC]

Walking towards Brighouse station for an overnight service, I was struck by how far away the running engine for what turned out to be the 0339 to York (which had arrived at 0330) could be heard. I was conscious that this would be all the more noticeable to nearby Brighouse residents as there are not usually stopping overnight rail services at the station, although there have been on a number of occasions in recent months due to the Transpennine Route Upgrade work, and the diversion of services from Huddersfiel.

Are there any general expectations set regarding running engines during prolonged waits at stations overnight, and are there different operational limitations depending upon the type of train?

 

[styles]

Not sure about engines, but I know they turn down the volume on the station PA system after a certain time round here. I think it remains on quiet until around 7am.

 

[The exile]

Not an answer to the question - but I can remember lying in bed as a kid listening to Deltics open up as they set off from Edinburgh on the southbound overnights. They would have been about 3 miles away, so I can only imagine what it must have been like in the (tgen certainly single-glazed) line side buildings.

 

[EveningStar]

Not an answer to the question - but I can remember lying in bed as a kid listening to Deltics open up as they set off from Edinburgh on the southbound overnights. They would have been about 3 miles away, so I can only imagine what it must have been like in the (tgen certainly single-glazed) line side buildings.

Somewhat similar, as a kid about two miles form the Lickey Incline ... at night the sound of 2 x class 37 working hard on a banking turn travels a long way.

 

[Bald Rick]

Same here, as a kid I could hear Class 50s from 4 miles away (it always seemed to be a warm summer evening, but I guess that was when I was most likely to be outside!)

To answer the question - no.

 

[trebor79]

I remember there is (or was) a sign on the chord linking Gloucester to the Bristol to Birmingham line instructing drivers to shut down engines if held at the signal.

 

[The Planner]

NR do get complaints about freight trains being held in loops etc overnight.

 

[DaveB10780]

In the 50s and 60s I lived with the tube next to my back garden. Even though visitors were very aware of the noise I filtered it out from birth. Maybe similar happens here when you are not used to it?

 

[sh24]

Similarly could here the 22:10 Waterloo-Yeovil as the 50 blasted away from Andover.

IIRC there are a couple of locations where signage instructed crews to shut down engines during the night. Blowed if I can remember where though.

 

[adc82140]

Not sure about engines, but I know they turn down the volume on the station PA system after a certain time round here. I think it remains on quiet until around 7am.

It's been quite a while since I travelled on late evening trains (far too old for that now!), but I remember on the SW Mainline, after about 11pm John Elgar got switched off and was replaced by manual almost whispered PA announcements.

 

[Horizon22]

Same here, as a kid I could hear Class 50s from 4 miles away (it always seemed to be a warm summer evening, but I guess that was when I was most likely to be outside!)

To answer the wuestion - no.

Yes probably because you had windows open and were outside!

Growing up I used to live only a few miles from the M25 and there was always this continual hum. I always thought it was worse in summer, but that’s probably just misremembering as it’s actually cooler air that helps sound travel better, which seems counter-intuitive to me, but it’s what the physics says.

Railway gets more noise complaints in autumn I believe.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Yesterday at 11:16 ==

In the 50s and 60s I lived with the tube next to my back garden. Even though visitors were very aware of the noise I filtered it out from birth. Maybe similar happens here when you are not used to it?

Comes up all the time when people are viewing properties or selling or visiting friends & family. The “how do you deal with that?” and the people who are their long-term just filter it out because it is part of the routine.

 

[scrapy]

The restarting of an engine can be much louder than one running for a while, so I guess it's a balancing act over which is the least worse, a consistant noise over a period of time or a louder sudden noise, but overall a shorter period of noise.

 

[stuving]

There have been persistent complaints of noise from Reading depot since before it was built. I think it was done as permitted development, replacing lineside sidings between the running lines and Cardiff Road. While the western (out of town) end adjoins fields and industry, at the town end there are houses backing onto the depot lines. And of course some the stock living there are diesels, and they work unsocial hours, and move between different servicing facilites during overnight stays.

So not a station, but it is where stock sometimes waits before starting from the station. As it was new, there was no scope for saying "it was here before you decided to come and live in that house". Its arrival is felt as the same as an operational decision to start holding stock at the station for long periods. There is one thread here; there may be more on the topic.

 

[168lover]

The restarting of an engine can be much louder than one running for a while, so I guess it's a balancing act over which is the least worse, a consistant noise over a period of time or a louder sudden noise, but overall a shorter period of noise.

Thing is restarting an engine generally means the locos compressor needs to run in order to rebuild air. 66s as well are renowned for revving their heads off on restarting in order to build their air back up

 

[Taunton]

The most significant racket I ever heard was at Tunbridge Wells station, with two 12-car Hastings 'Thumpers' starting together in opposite directions. Four power cars each, eight in total. However did stereotype 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' (let alone the station staff) manage to put up with it.

Middle of the night in London, quiet(it is sometimes), at Poplar 1980s, I heard a couple of times what was certainly a distant Sulzer under power, and put it down to a Class 47 climbing Bethnal Green bank, but later discovered it was from the other direction, a Class 33 over at Greenwich on the night newspapers down into Kent. I had been about equidistant.

 

[edwin_m]

Deltics for me too, from the time when they ran an overnight on the Transpennine route. I was about a mile away as the crow flies but with a big hill in between, and only found out what it was when I moved to Scotland and encountered one in the flesh.

 

[sabanda]

I live alongside the railway near Pokesdown and, on the quietest nights, can hear not only the hustle alarms of trains at the platform there, but also - astoundingly - the sound of Voyagers taking power out of Bournemouth station on empty stock moves to Eastleigh. They are of course much louder as they pass us! I have only once been woken, though, and this was by an engineering train.

 

[Torfaen]

Growing up I used to live only a few miles from the M25 and there was always this continual hum. I always thought it was worse in summer, but that’s probably just misremembering as it’s actually cooler air that helps sound travel better, which seems counter-intuitive to me, but it’s what the physics says.

I think it's the effect of a temperature gradient when air closer to the ground is cooler which bends the sound waves back downwards. A similar effect to wind direction helping sound transmission - where it's the relative air speed at different heights that causes the effect.

 

[jondr3]

TPE had to infamously withdrawl Cl68's + MK5a sets from Scarborough after numerous noise complaints about them idling late at night or early morning. Even made the BBC Look North segment a few times

 

[CW2]

I remember alighting at York from a southbound Deltic hauled overnight, cycling home a couple of miles, climbing into bed at 03:xx, then hearing the distant but unmistakable sound of my train departing York for Kings Cross. Admittedly it was a still summer night, but even so I was impressed.

 

[The exile]

Yes probably because you had windows open and were outside!

Growing up I used to live only a few miles from the M25 and there was always this continual hum. I always thought it was worse in summer, but that’s probably just misremembering as it’s actually cooler air that helps sound travel better, which seems counter-intuitive to me, but it’s what the physics says.

Railway gets more noise complaints in autumn I believe.

Trees also work well as a sound-baffle - but only when in leaf!

 

[ox_chap]

Chiltern's Class 68s are not used on the trains to Oxford. But with so many flats now built right up against the railway, and including the northern end near the bays, I've always thought the residents had a lucky escape on that one.

 

[milooo]

When there are track workers opposite your house you are most certainly made aware of it.... That was certainly one sleepless night.

 

[JohnofWessex]

Thing is restarting an engine generally means the locos compressor needs to run in order to rebuild air. 66s as well are renowned for revving their heads off on restarting in order to build their air back up

I always assumed that loco's were electric start

 

[JohnMcL7]

In the 50s and 60s I lived with the tube next to my back garden. Even though visitors were very aware of the noise I filtered it out from birth. Maybe similar happens here when you are not used to it?

When I was younger we used to visit friends near Basingstoke who lived near the mainline. Initially it seemed incredibly noisy with all the trains going past but within a week I found I wasn't really even noticing them any more, similarly when I was at University I lived on very busy roads which would be noticeable when I moved back down from home but I quickly got used to it.

I do wonder if a more constant noise though is easier to fill out than an occasional loud noise from a single freight loco or similar operating. We sometimes have 68's on the container trains up here and I'm surprised how far away from the railway line you can hear them.

 

[Sakuradori]

I remember watching a rescue loco set off a series of detonators well past midnight in quite a dense residential area. Saw quite a few lights switch on in nearby blocks.

 

[Amos390]

Do level crossings get their alarms muted overnight as well as I'm sure a blaring alarm every half hour or so doesn't go down too well with the neighbours...

 

[800301]

Chiltern's Class 68s are not used on the trains to Oxford. But with so many flats now built right up against the railway, and including the northern end near the bays, I've always thought the residents had a lucky escape on that one.

Surprisingly and I’m guessing because a lot of it is uni accommodation we don’t get many complaints about Oxford sidings, Bedwyn however is a different story where not to long ago a noise abatement order was likely to be on the cards but either that resident has now moved or we are just being really good because it seems to have all gone quiet recently

 

[AM9]

I've lived early enough to three railways in my life:
1) about a mile from the Hainault depot in the '50s on a quiet evening, there were the characteristc tube train whistles as they shuffled around the siding with the occasional steam goods working it's way around the loop
2) living next to the GE Southend Victoria line, for the first few nights I would be woken up by a train that had gone before I realised. That was filtered out after a couple of weeks
3) living in Cosham, near the south to west chord of the triangle, there was the unmistakeable chugging and whining of thumpers breaking the silence.

 

[Iskra]

I spend a lot of time at an address within 30m of the line in the vicinity of Hare Park Junction (Wakefield).

You pretty much get used to it. The only passenger stock that stands out as noisy compared to the others are the Voyagers. Freight obviously stands out, as locomotives on heavy freight trains from a standing start are noisy, but I don’t mind it. I actually quite like the sound of freight rumbling through. The only time it gets a bit wearisome is when NR are working on the track as then the trains all blow their horns and they have a warning siren along the track.

Conversely, it’s very convenient when 37’s or other interesting workings are passing by…