Unfortunate campground

You talk about trains, well let me tell you about an experience I went through!

Back in 1986, in Mid-May, my parents rented a friend's Class C motorhome for us to travel from Grande Cache, Alberta to Vancouver, BC for Expo '86. We decided to stop overnight in Jasper. Dad found a parking lot in town that was free, and allowed overnight parking. Only catch - it was right beside a railyard. A very busy railyard, we soon found out. It started at something like 1 AM:

DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!
HONK! HONK!
RA-RA-RA-RA-VROOOOMMM!!
"HEY CHARLY WATCH THAT WESTBOUND TANKER!!"
CLANG! CLANG! CLUNK!
HONK! HONK!
PSSSSSHHHHHH!
VA-ROOOOMMMMM!
DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!
HONK! HONK!
.....And, well, you get the idea. This went on until like 5 AM. Turns out this railyard happened to be a staging area for trains heading east, west, and north. And maybe south. We got to listen to a couple trains getting pulled apart, and few more being built. Not to mention a few longer ones passing through.:E:E

Now, you wouldn't think it would be so bad, but given where we were parked, it SOUNDED like the trains, switchers, cars, and employees were going THROUGH the motorhome, and not past it.:R

Let's just say that at 6 AM we were all wide-awake. Dad figured it was best we got a move on, and so we continued on toward Vancouver, everyone just a wee bit bleary-eyed.:Z

Normally, I love to watch trains, but in this case......:S

Cheers!

Ah well pitch, things could be worse. You could have had to come to Virginia Beach and stay at the campground that is at the edge of the Oceana Naval Air Station. The "Sound of Freedom" would drown out any train noise LOL.

OP here. I posted the original on my I Phone, something that I am not well versed at.
The park is "The Hickories" in Owego,NY. Town owned and operated, like I said a real nice park well groomed and spotless. We took a riverside site and the freeway is directly across the river from us.
We stayed because we had a family function near by. There really is no attraction nearby, so I would have had no reason to stay there otherwise.
30 amp site with water,25.00 per night. Dump station, also have a $5.00 pump out truck during the week. All sites have a fire ring and a table.
They have some 50 Amp pull throughs and a lot of tent sites. They do not take reservations.
If we had taken an interior site the freeway noise would have been less, but the tracks would have been that much closer.
E-zee access from Rt.17/I86 between Owego and Apalachin.

I'll bet the price that your paying for this "unfortunate" park reflects exactly that, a railroad on one side and freeway on the other.

I have heard other folks mention that they turn the fan on for noise. What am I missing, your adding noise to compensate for the noise.??? I don't get it

Actually the horns weren't as bad as the vibration rocking the coach. First came the horns, then the ground shaking. Long trains, heavy loaded, moving fast.

crabbin cabin wrote:

gbopp wrote:
You should post the name and location of the unfortunate campground.
A few days ago there was a member looking for a CG where they could view trains.
What you consider 'unfortunate', may be a plus for others.
Please share.

True! Lemons? = Lemonade!! But we also when we first started our nomad life DW thought the best way to find a cg for the night was to follow the train tracks!!

Railfanning from the Campground

BTW: There is an easy way to avoid campgrounds that are near RR Tracks.

Look at a map!

Not only is there usually a rail track just outside the CG, there's almost always a grade crossing there too (that's how you get in!).
So you get the 2 longs, one short, one long all night too.

And now with all the coal and oil trains expanding out west, it's gonna be even more fun!

The trains going by and blowing those horns....No problem for me...I take my hearing aids out. Now for my DW,from what she tells me,it's a whole 'nother
story !

Grew up just a couple hundred feet from a railroad yard that worked all night long. Remember when I grew up and left home for college, that I had a hard time falling asleep in the big city, cause there was no RR noise.

And I do know that there are railfans around here who would love the OP's RR campground site!!!

Oh, when I was stationed at Ft Eustis, just down the road from Williamsburg, I lived very very close to the same tracks that go right by Anvil CG. Never noticed it as being noisy.

We stayed at Anvil in Williamsburg several years ago. Got there way after dark having made last minute reservation for the night. Had no idea tracks are directly behind the cg and boy did I get a surprise.