Round Rock Area Quarry Railroad Question (Austin, Spring: new home, construction jobs, to buy)

[LV Luvr]

So I just came across this article and saw the stats with it being #2. So I'm assuming there is a lot of traffic on this RR?! I was a little interested specifically in Hidden Glen...saw a home I liked. Can anyone respond who lives within 1-2 minles comment on how loud or frequent the RR is used? TIA!!!

Texas Crushed Stone (http://impactnews.com/round-rock-pflugerville/120-history/6538-texas-crushed-stone - broken link)

[Trainwreck20]

Interesting article, I did not know about the former quarries in the Austin area. I grew up in Georgetown (went to school with the Snead kids). They are a great family.

Anyway, no, I don't actually live near Hidden Glen, but I have lived right off of the MoPac rail line south of there in Austin proper. The paragraph of note is:

Every day, an average of 40,000 tons of rock is quarried at Texas Crushed Stone. Fifteen hundred trucks and 100 rail cars then ship the rock to construction jobs in Central and East Texas

A 'typical' quarry will run from 300,000 tons per year (pretty small) to 2,000,000 tons per year (big). 14.6 million tons per year is massive . 100 rail cars is really not that much for a train shipping operation, that would be either a lot of small groups of cars, or, more likely, 2 or 3 'unit' trains a day. When I backed up to the MoPac RR, 'unit' trains would carry a variety of goods past my house. It was very noticeable at first (the train was literally less than 100 feet from my bedroom), but it was not so much the noise as the deep vibration. Lighter trains are much noisier than full trains, btw.

IF you are looking to buy in that area, things to check out:

• Where does the train blow its whistle, if anywhere in that area? You want to be 'upstream' of that point. The whistle is MUCH worse than the train.
• How far off the tracks are you? It is an exponential function, so a block or two off the railroad, and you will barely be able to hear it, most likely.
• How fast are the trains going? Again, counter-intuitive, but the faster ones are generally quieter.
• Which crossings will impact you? Will you need to cross the tracks every time you go somewhere?
• What is the train frequency? I doubt it is as high as the MoPac section I was at, and I almost never got caught by the train.

Finally, I would worry more about trucks. 1,500 trucks is quite a few trucks. Assuming they mostly leave during the day (14 hour period), that is more than 2 trucks per minute. I suspect those are more like permit levels, not actual traffic levels, so it could be quite a bit less, too. Since the operation is so far north of Hidden Glenn, I doubt you will be directly impacted by trucks.

[neddy]

I have some friends that live over in Bent Wood across the street and it is not a big problem for them and the house backs up to the tracks. When they built they had soundproof windows installed and that solved the problem. In fact the first time I went over there and saw the train but no sound it sort of surprised me. They said the tracks are fairly well used.

[docryan8404]

I live in Georgetown and don't recall seeing a train going through town that often. I believe they go South towards Round Rock when they leave. I don't even recall hearing any train whistles either. The big thing was the blasting, which didn't really bother us.

[rrhome]

Hello Friends,
I have seen searching around for build a new home and noticed that a new extension is coming out on 1431 with Sendero Spring sub division. However, noticed on google that there is lot of quarry activity around that place across the road. Also, saw some plans of future mining identified even to just next to this new extention.

Although the mining is happening very close to 1431, I haven't seen much dust accumulated to the trees nearby and hence wondering what kinds risks this can pose to live near by in places like Sendero etc.

Thanks for your help if you have any suggestions.

[ScoPro]

I live in Brushy Creek on the west side of Round Rock.

Too far from the quarry up on 1431 to hear any of that noise, but when traveling over to RR on 620 once in a while there will be a massive traffic backup from where the quarry railroad crosses that busy thoroughfare. It causes about a 10 or 15 minute delay, sometimes at the lunch hour.

About 7 or 8 loooooong trainloads of crushed stone are transported through there each weekday.

Supposedly there is a plan in the works to build an overpass on 620 to alleviate the problem, but I ain't holding my breath - they've been saying that for the 18 years we've lived here.

But just gotta go with the flow - that quarry was here before we moved in. Bidness is bidness.

[Trainwreck20]

That quarry is mainly limestone, I believe, which is a very non-toxic material, all things considered. Silica is sometimes an issue with quarries, but limestone will likely have very small amounts of silica (maybe 1 or 2 percent, maybe less).