Train tracks- Cooper Young (Memphis: apartment, rentals, houses)

[CrossCountryUrbanite]

Hello there-

Been looking for houses online. Getting to Memphis on July 4.

Saw a couple of cute ones managed by seemingly reputable companies, but they are a couple of houses from the train tracks in Cooper Young- is that bad?

How often to do the trains run? Are they quite loud?

Thanks for letting me know.

[(901)]

Originally Posted by CrossCountryUrbanite

Hello there-

Been looking for houses online. Getting to Memphis on July 4.

Saw a couple of cute ones managed by seemingly reputable companies, but they are a couple of houses from the train tracks in Cooper Young- is that bad?

How often to do the trains run? Are they quite loud?

Thanks for letting me know.

There are trains coming and going from that site day and night. It is the main railyard for Norfolk Southern in this area

I lived in the area you describe for 2 years. I actually got use to listening to the horns at all hours of the night

Also, stay clear of the last two streets in the s.e. corner of the c/y district

Welcome to Memphis

[CrossCountryUrbanite]

thanks, 901!

[hex_haight]

i lived on s. cox, about a block and a half from the tracks and i had a friend down the street, about three or four houses away from southern. and i stayed briefly in an apartment near the u of m very very close to the tracks.
after a while, i got used to it. i had a harder time with the planes that use eastparkway as their route back to the airport and cars being broken into than i did with the trains. i highly second 901's advice about which streets to avoid, and i would whole heartedly recommend viewing the place before renting in c/y. there is a particular company that begins with an r and rhymes with did that has a nasty habit advertising cooper young rentals and the house is really on the west side of mcclean...which is probably NOT where you want to live unless you are currently employeed in narcotics distrubtion services.

[rockadoodle]

I've lived near the tracks in a few spots in Memphis. My advice is that if you're a light sleeper or prone to having trouble falling (back) asleep in the wee hours, don't live near a railway crossing. If you sleep like a log, have at it.

Memphis is a major cargo hub in the US/world -- rail, air, highway, and river. While not every neighborhood gets noise, several do. If you're not near the tracks or the expressway, you might be in FedEx's approach or takeoff path. And, well, FedEx rocks and rolls relentlessly, particularly at night.

[Ginsaw]

901's right about the rail use. It's NS's east-west main line and is both the oldest and busiest in Memphis. It's used constantly sometimes with trains almost one after another. They include the long unit coal trains from out West that have engines on the front and rear. In fact I'm listening to the horns on one now, and I'm two miles away.

They're required to blow for all grade crossings and so you hear it the most where many streets cross close to each other, like in the Perkins/Poplar area. And some of those engineers really lean on the horns a lot more than the standard horn crossing sequence of two longs, a short and a long. That's all the blowing they're actually supposed to do.

It's something you get used to. Some folks even enjoy it and like watching them.

Those today missed out on the real train noises that used to come from that railroad decades ago. Back then the Southern Ry ran a classification yard where they made up trains and you could for miles away hear the distinctive loud rolling thunder and rumbling noises of couplers slamming together or slack being taken or let out of trains. Cool sound to hear at night. Anyway, it's an intermodal yard today, which is run differently.