Considering NID to relocate to, job and food questions (Hope: live, train)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by Canuckabilly

.......How does that 600 a month at RV parks compare to rent for a house in the same area?

Many of the RV parks are seasonal and shut down for the winter months. So, I suggest that you be certain of a space before you commit to this option.

[Canuckabilly]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Many of the RV parks are seasonal and shut down for the winter months. So, I suggest that you be certain of a space before you commit to this option.

Yeah I have noticed that in my searches.

[Cdarocks]

My friends just put their house up for rent. 1800 sq ft on .18 lot size. It's a very ordinary place and took them 48 hours to get it rented for $1850. It's just off Gvmt Way in Hayden. My niece and new husband were looking for an apartment and found many applicants for each place they considered, so the rental market appears to be tight. The RV option is definitely less, but of course you have to acquire an RV and it's seasonal.

[Canuckabilly]

How intrusive are the trains that run through the Sandpoint area? I've read quite a few references to the amount of railroad traffic there. Read an article about the new lines/bridges they are planning on building through there and it said average was 60 per day. So I'm assuming a lot of train horn blowing goes on, depending on how many road crossings there are.


Looked like there was a line running through Clark Fork too.



Train noise isn't really a dealbreaker for me to move somewhere. But we used to live 75 yards from a track here is SC that had 2 crossings within a half mile of each other and our house was in between :/ Don't want to do that again for sure, nothing like pausing a conversation for 3 or 4 mins while you waited for it pass lol. You get used to it, but would rather not. Distant noise isn't bad once in a while, but with 60 trains a day, seems like more than once in a while.


I guess I'm just wondering where they can be heard up to. Like, are they audible on the southside of the lake, or does the hill block it? Can you hear them near Naples? I know sound can be funny, especially in the mountains. Here in the flat foothill of upstate SC, the farm I use to work on you could hear the train several miles away, but only in certain atmospheric conditions. Normal days you couldn't. I think the old guy there said it was usually before the rain came the next day or something.

[Cnynrat]

There are a lot of trains. Train people call this area "the funnel" because a lot of the traffic in the inland northwest funnels through this area. I think 60 per day is the right number. BNSF is building a second bridge, which will remove the current bottleneck that exists there. It's not clear to me whether that will really lead to increased traffic. Part of the reason is to reduce the amount of time trains spend waiting for their turn to cross the bridge. Given that we have a lot of grade level crossings, and you do sometimes find standing trains blocking crossings, this may actually turn out to be a good thing for the area. IMO, increased traffic will be primarily driven by the demand to transport goods, not a second bridge.

It's really impossible to give any clear cut advice on train noise since it does seem to bounce around in the hills and it's difficult to say where you'll hear them and where you won't. It's definitely something to be aware of when looking for properties. I'd recommend spending some time listening to assess the level of noise at places you are interested in.

To give you an idea how hard it can be to find a place with literally no train noise, we live in eastern Sagle, about a mile from the lake. We're 7-8 miles as the crow flies from the tracks that run east of 95 in Sagle, and have Gold Hill between us and them. No noise from that direction. We're also 4-5 miles from Hope as the crow flies, with most of that distance being across water. When it's quiet we can hear faint train noise from that direction. Definitely not annoying at all, but that will give you an idea of how the sound can carry in the right conditions. BTW, I find the sound seems to carry more during winter.

Dave

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I'm not in Sandpoint, but I have two different train crossings 3 miles from my house. I can hear the horns and if it is still at night, I can hear the clackety clack of train wheels.


The noise carries a long distance.


At three miles distance it is easy to just tune the train noise out and not be bothered by it, but the noise can definitely travel that far. Before we bought this house, I went and parked on the street and listened for noise in the area, including the trains and planes and I found the volume of it to be acceptable.

[volosong]

In Rathdrum, I'm about a half-mile from the tracks. Never hear them during the daytime. In the evening and at night, if the bedroom window is open, (usually it is), I can hear them. Not obnoxious at all. They've been told to not blow their horns while going through town, and seem to abide by that request.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

We're in Clark Fork (when we're there), about 200 ft above the river, and about 1/2 mile from the tracks. The tracks run along the south bank of the river east of town, and we can definitely hear those lonesome whistles blow! Not so much that it bothers us, but I wouldn't want to live on the ridge right above the tracks. Some whistles are more obnoxious than others. They're actually not all the same. This past summer there were many more trains passing through than we have every heard before. Some days we'd only hear a few trains, but on other days it seems like there was one right after the other. Could be a sign of the times.

In the town of Clark Fork the tracks run along the edge of town to the south before they cross the river east of town. A very pretty view is from the railroad crossing toward the east end of town.

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

We enjoy our place in Hope, when we're there. The city got the railroad to refrain from blowing a whistle through there. Had to upgrade the crossing or otherwise pay some money - I don't really know what the deal was. Anyway, the train runs along the lake right down the hill from our house. We're a little ways up the hill, and the trees apparently dampen the sound quite a bit. Plus, I like the sound, what little there is. It's not intrusive, it's a feature, lol.

Just so the train stays on the track, doesn't blow up... the usual caveats.

Believe it or not, we actually hear the sound of the engines and wheels on the track, not only the whistle. Kind of a deep humming sound. It's very faint. More often than not I hear it when I'm out on the early morning walk with our dog. We never hear it inside the house, so it's not all all intrusive.

My dad lives near a grade level crossing in rural NJ (yes, there really are rural parts of NJ). His town has looked indi instead crossings that would allow the trains to stop the whistles, but decided they were too costly.

Dave