I think it was the second night we slept here, at 1:22 AM, the train came by. Slowly, blasting a warning whistle as it passed, churning, grinding down the hill.
It’s not as close as it looks. In fact, when I drive around the block, just on the other side of the tracks and look back to find my deck, I’m surprised by how far away it is.
But it’s close enough to wake some of us – that first night, out of five of us sleeping here, only two (Joseph and I) were awakened – and close enough to make the house tremble a bit.
To some, a bug. To others a feature.
And not just the train-mad five-year olds. I admit that I like living near the tracks.
Now, if trains were passing constantly, I wouldn’t feel this way. And I was assured before I bought it that there was action twice a day – and so far it’s been no more frequent than once a day (or night) , if that.
Why do I like it? I think because I like be reminded that people are making useful stuff that is being transported to other people who need it, that journeys are being made and that, in general, life is happening, is going on, is persisting and being fruitful. Nothing stands still.
Blast away, I say. I don’t mind. Awaken me in the night.
Or when one can’t get to sleep. I can’t count the number of times while lying in bed and unable to sleep, and the mind turning circles, that the sound of the train has been a welcome consolation, making the endless thoughts dissipate.
I lived across the street (well, about one block) from a railroad track back in North Carolina.
After a while I didn’t even hear it. After hearing the train go by visitor once asked me, “How can you stand that?”
I said, “Stand what?”
The first sound we hear in life itself… over and over is our mom’s heart beat for months while we are a pre born there in the dark within our mom; and some trains, later on in our lives… also make a repetitive rhythm… click clacking on the tracks… as does the rosary make a repetitive rhythm of its own as does monks’ chanting in some cases. But all of that rhythm is about mom and that safe space she provided….with the original beat. Then at birth, we are thrown out into the brightly lit operating room as we are born and the perfect rhythm is gone…and each of us finds it in different ways later on….some in the rosary…some in the Latin music and drums of Cuba. You have found it again perhaps if your train is click clacking like the one near us when I was young… click clacked… as many trains do.
The train cut right through my college campus, and practically passed under my dorm window. The tracks crossed two streets at either end of the housing cluster, necessitating long whistles. Meggan’s right — after a few days, you don’t even hear it.
Of course, freshman-dorm levels of alcohol consumption helps, too. Just pointing it out.
Love the sounds of trains in the distance.
About 10 years ago I moved back to the small borough where I grew up. As a child, I had always loved hearing the occasional sound of the trains, especially in the night or early morning. They are far enough away that they don’t rattle the house! but you can definitely hear them. Years ago, they transported materials to and from the nearby steel mills. These days I don’t know what they are transporting (since the steel industry collapsed decades ago), but the trains are still running.
When we spent our first night in this house, I remember how comforting it was to hear those train sounds again.
And of course now I have that Johnny Cash song in my head!
I also grew up within earshot of train tracks and love the sound of them at night. Why is that sound so comforting?
What I don’t like as much are the VERY busy tracks that now seem to lie between me and any place I am trying to reach. However, it reminds me of what my brother (a priest) says about the sound of crying babies in church: It means the church is alive. Busy train tracks are a good thing, even if they make you late for church!
Glad you are settling in. Prayers all around.
Not too long ago I realized that I’ve lived all my life within earshot of train tracks, sometimes quite close, other times a bit further, but on those cold winter nights when sound seems to travel twice as far there has always been the roar and whistle to remind me of places beyond my darkened room. After a while, you start to take it for granted.
What a great way to look at the train…You just changed my perspective on living near the tracks…God bless you…
Amy
I too had a late night freight train pass my apartment and like you I would awake to the sound of the train. As the others noted, over time you will not be startled and begin to sleep though most nights.
I can also recommend to ‘Amy@tripadvisor’ an overnight trip with your children on Amtrak sometime. The clickety clack of the train is soothing when you go to sleep and it lack of places to go visit on a long distance train brings the benefit of a simpler and more relaxed vacation. Just hang out in the observation car with a book and let the world roll by.
Joe
The night trains remind me that everything is moving and changing all around us. That I could hop on a train (or plane, or boat, or car, all of which I hear from my bed) and be in a different world before long. Sometimes I want to be elsewhere, and sometimes I’m glad to be in my own little place.