Train Horn Insomnia (San Antonio, Austin, Atlanta: apartment complex, condo, hotel)

[eloquent_alligator]

I moved to Austin from Atlanta three weeks ago, got an apartment next to Zilker Park which I absolutely love, with the sole exception that there is a train across the river that blares it's horn ALL HOURS OF THE NIGHT. It's mind numbing. I grew up in the city and I'm used to traffic, sirens, etc. but this is on another level. I've literally not slept through the night since I've been here.

All that to say, I'm moving out this weekend.

I'm looking to buy a house in South Austin and found a couple great places near Slaughter/Manchaca but I pull up the map and low and behold, there's that train track. I don't want to run into the same issue I ran into with the apartment and am looking for advice from folks who live around there. I imagine the apartment construction had a great deal to do with hearing the noise but any advice would be appreciated. Would prefer to say at or below $350k.

If there are other areas you'd recommend I'm open to hearing them but really just want to make sure I don't hear that damn train. :-)

[DMChicago]

I lived in Chicago for 10 years, the first 8 my condo backed up to the EL tracks. 2 tracks in each direction. The Red line ran 24/7.

I never lost sleep over the noise. I got used to it quickly.

I didn't think they could use the horn after a certain time?

[froglipz]

Eventually you won't even notice the train.

[eloquent_alligator]

I lived in NYC for a few years and am accustomed to noise. This is something else entirely.

[centralaustinite]

Well, there is a train station there and the trains are required to blow their horns when they go and slow to a walking pace so it does take a while, about 20 trains go through daily, 2 of them passenger which blow longer and louder.

Don't know of any solution for you OP, head north instead of south I guess, the train runs north but there are fewer crossings and very little horn blowing.

[JH6]

maybe invest 40 bucks in a white noise machine or something like that?

We have trains in round rock I heard them for the first month of owning the house, now I can not even hear them.

[cBach]

Ambien?

[Trainwreck20]

The trains have to blow their horns 'X' feet before certain types of intersections. If the train/road intersection is controlled above a certain level, the train is not required to blow their horns. So, it really comes down to a couple of factors - 1) does the train have to blow its horn anywhere in the area you are looking, a 2) if they do have to blow the horn, exactly where is it and is it before or after the address you are looking at.

I backed up to a section of the MoPac in north Austin. The sound of the train itself was relatively minor after just a few days. I was lucky in that I was 'X+Y' feet before the intersection where they blew the horn - i.e., they were past my house and you could barely hear the horn. It is VERY directional. Approaching from the other direction, the train was 2*X+Y from my house, and that was far enough to make it a non-issue, as well. On very rare occasions, some screw-up engineer would blow the horn early (before they had passed my house) and I would wake up hanging from the light fixture on the ceiling. Not really, ofc, but the 100' or so made a world of difference. No possible way to sleep through that horn. The tracks were literally my back property line and my wimpy arm could easily have hit the train with a rock from my back porch.

Not sure if that helps, really, but just proximity to a train track is not an issue, it is very specific where the problems are.

[Denver303TJC]

Maybe you could flip the bird to the conductor, then he/she will get sad and turn the train around? ;-)

Just kidding, :-). One time in Ft. Worth we booked a hotel with Priceline Express, which had good reviews and seemed to be a good place. But, once we got there we realized it was in close proximity to a rail yard, so I figured the people at the Priceline offices were laughing uproariously when they described it as being "a quiet hotel". Also, my former apartment complex backed up to a train track (there were times at night when we'd park then we'd see the train light come out of nowhere, then the train would pass through). Luckily our apartment was on the opposite side of the tracks, so the noise was faint. I say this as a way to relate and know that it ain't fun having train tracks nearby.

However, I'm often a light sleeper, so I downloaded a free app on my iphone which mimics the sound of a fan (but it won't cool your room down, bwahaha ;-) ) and I place the speaker's phone near my nightstand so it drowns out other noise in the area. They have a L, M, and H setting, so perhaps it'd work if you blasted it on High. Also, they have a timer, so if you left it on for an hour or whatever until you were deep asleep, that could work. Hopefully that works, I know train horns aren't exactly quiet...

[ashbeeigh]

Ask the realtor about the noise issue. In other cities I've heard of no horn zones. I'm not sure if that's possible in Austin. That would require city council and enough people complaining about it.

I grew up relatively close to a quarry in San Antonio (maybe like 4 miles away?) and the train that transported the rocks was maybe about 2 miles away and then right next to my high school. Depending on the direction of the wind and the weather I could hear faint sounds of the train horn on a regular basis. Living right near Mopac you will have to deal with that noise. The further out east or west of mopac you get the less train noise you're going to deal with.

In regard to recommendations, do you like everything about the area you're in? Do you want those same amenities? Close to the trail, within walking distance of things, etc? Or do you want something more suburban? That will help others narrow it down for you (I don't know anything about southwest Austin).