NJ Transit Train Horn? (Middlesex: apartments, houses, purchasing)

[rons1]

Under what conditions does the train have to blow it's horn?

Considering purchasing near a train station. If there is no road crossing, does it still blow its horn when stopping at the station?

[goeagles77]

Definitely at grade crossings. Since a lot of stations are near grade crossings, it's not unreasonable to assume there will be train horns near most stations.

[sirk98]

in my town, there are no grade crossings near the station, but they still sound the horn on approach to the station itself

[pinkydapimp]

Just make sure you are comfortable with the noise. We were looking at a house near the train. We actually went to the house in the morning to hear how loud it was. We ended up not pulling the trigger. Houses near the train will always be at a disadvantage when selling as there will always be people that simply wont do it. In our case the house was right next to the tracks. Nice house but we passed on it and the house sat on the market for a while. Look at the history of the property and see if it had trouble selling previously.

[Rare727]

I live in Middlesex County and you hear train horns constantly, no matter where you are or how seemingly far you are from a train station. So yes, you'll hear a lot of train horns.

That said, I've lived in apartments literally directly next to railroad tracks and I was fine with it...you tend to get used to the noise.

[2nd trick op]

Admittedly, my judgement is a bit biased, since I'm a railroad buff; but for most of the past eight years, I've lived in two buildings within fifty yards of a railroad main line that sees about thirty trains daily. It's been my experience that one isn't disturbed much by any noise they're used to, and I usually sleep well.

There's a true story of a railroad telegrapher in Michigan from about 110 years ago who fell asleep at his post, but was awakened by the telegraph sounder calling his location. He then copied a written order (these were always transmitted in a very precise syntax) instructing a train he believed was still approaching to take siding for an opposing train. Unfortunately, that train had already passed and the "op" (now you know where my "handle" comes from) had slept through it, leading to a fatal head-on collision, but awoke to his own "station call" in Morse code no more than a few minutes later.

There was another tale in the same article about an "op" who, if he got drowsy, would string a wire across the tracks from his bay-window post, with an old coffee pot at the end of the wire. What a racket that must have made!

[masterchef1]

I live near tracks, I can hear train but you kind of stop noticing it, kinda like how you can go nose blind to something.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by Rare727

I live in Middlesex County and you hear train horns constantly, no matter where you are or how seemingly far you are from a train station. So yes, you'll hear a lot of train horns.

That said, I've lived in apartments literally directly next to railroad tracks and I was fine with it...you tend to get used to the noise.

Exactly. I rented a house with train tracks behind it.one train came through once a day. My ex complained about what a bad choice I had made blah blah blah....first time the train came through, he slept right through it. You do get used to it.

[vinodelotus]

Take a look at the position of the train relative to your house too. I have NJ Transit going behind my house, but it's down low so we can't even see it and barely hear it if we're outside. I did hear the horn the first night then I got used to it, and now when we do hear it we think it's charming. It's a big advantage to live within walking distance to a train to NYC, people worldwide dream of that opportunity, so unless it's really blaring I wouldn't worry too much.

[Jackal1]

I'm a conductor for NJT. I have to agree with most of the post stating that they just get used to it. We blow the horn mostly for fun. Especially late nights and receive very few complaints. I think most folks enjoy it.