How close is too close to train tracks? (Chicago, Elmhurst: houses, school)

[SohCahToa123]

My wife and I just had an offer accepted on a house which is 0.75 mi from a metra station and about 0.25 mi from the tracks. This was part of the allure for us as I commute downtown daily. However, I've started doing a little more research and have found a number of articles discussing the health risks of living too close to train tracks (diesel fumes from the exhaust and disrupted sleep from the noise). So, I'm wondering if anyone else lives as near train tracks as we would, and if so, what your experience has been. Would a quarter mile be considered close enough to the tracks to pose significant health risks? Thanks!

[Lookout Kid]

I'm not sure anyone here is really qualified to say, though I do remember a study of asthma cases in children who live close to busy highways, and the threshold they mentioned was 500 feet. But a busy highway creates a LOT more emissions than a train line.

I'd worry more about noise.

[JJski]

you are worried about nothing... that's our distance also, you will super happy with your decision...

[chet everett]

While I personally would prefer not to have a parcel that backs to the railroad tracks, I do know folks that literally live within a few hundred feet of BNSF or UP-W rails and they honestly do not suffer from any ailments. Now, having a well built home, heavily landscaped yard, and otherwise up-to-date medical care/ knowledge is probably putting them in a whole different socio-economic category of some family living in essentially a shack, maybe surrounded on three sides by industrial or non-organic agriculture, and with no time nor money to see doctors...

Being a even a 1/10 of a mile away will substantially reduce any negatives. A full quarter of mile makes it a non-issue...

[4122]

Being a 0.25 miles away from the tracks is fine. I live around the same distance from the tracks and it doesn't bother us at all. I do hear noise from the train sometimes, but it's not very loud and I can't smell diesel fumes from my house.

Too close to the train tracks would be if it was right in your backyard.There are some houses that literally back up to the train. It must be so loud that you can't have a conversation if a train passes by.

[SohCahToa123]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I thought I was probably overreacting a bit but it's nice to hear that from others. There are some other houses, a road and some trees in between the house and tracks so I probably shouldn't worry

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by SohCahToa123

Thanks for the replies everyone! I thought I was probably overreacting a bit but it's nice to hear that from others. There are some other houses, a road and some trees in between the house and tracks so I probably shouldn't worry

I used to live with two tracks literally behind our back fence. The ran freight trains containing nearly anything, and you'd see tankers and really wonder what was in them. But the noise and shaking was like an earthquake ever two, three times we had trains pass. When they got in the second track at night they were hourly.

Things shook off shelves in the house the vibration was so great. You kinda got used to it but then you never did.

The biggest problem was not the train itself but all the warning sirens. Every street had a very loud warning that a train was coming. Stupid people try to get around gates and get stuck so they make sure you know. They would echo with the ditch it was in. When we bought the house, the one track was needing repair and rarely had any trains. Then they fixed it and later dug up the side and added another and while the one occasional wasn't much of a problem, that changed.

I don't believe people that have a train track run in sight of their house when they say its not a bother. Maybe if they don't run many trains, but if its on a busy freight route, not how things play out at all.

Ask how often you get trains and what kind of track it is... do they run regular routes. If your not right next to it you won't hear as much but ask directly how busy it is and if they have all the track alarms which go off from the approach to it passing, which means if it sits there on a track for an hour, the track alarms go on that long. Don't ask the relaator, but ask some of the neighbors who know.

[Paige65]

Anecdotal: I've lived (and currently live) closer than .25 for about twenty two years (commuter only). My children have lived in this home their entire lives. They are now teenagers and have not had any serious illnesses. Neither have the many older teens and young adults who grew up here. I think you are good.

[2nd trick op]

A lot of factors are involved here, and one thing people aren't aware of is that locomotive air horns were redesigned to direct more of the sound directly toward the front of the trains some years back. It will also help if there's no highway crossing nearby -- state law usually mandates sounding the whistle unless moderated by local ordinance.

And in some parts of Chicago, the tracks are in trenches below street level; also a big plus.

Admittedly, my judgment on this matter is somewhat biased, because I've ben a railroad buff all my days. But I've spent most of the past ten years living in a corridor between Reading and Allentown, PA that sees about thirty freight trains daily. And most of the local residents just got used to them within a few days of moving in.

[moderngnome]

Where I live in Elmhurst, nearly everyone backs to something. A school, a busy road, a train track, or an expressway. What's that saying? Pick your poison?

I wouldn't sweat it.