bfchat.brainformation.com

train street alright, a bit nuts i think:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hanois-train-street

Oh the railroad runs through the middle of the house, in and out of the middle of the house.
The landlord loves to scream and fuss, so we set him down in the middle of the house. Etc.

My question is, which came first, the train or the houses?

More than likely the train tracks were already there. Then came shanties, and then houses.

That's the sequence I would expect, but being so close to the tracks is highly unusual in any event.

Population density causes all kinds of things to change from what we might consider normal.
A Farmers nearest neighbor might be two miles away.
Suburbanites have limits to how close to their property line they can build, 30 feet, 15 feet, and downward the closer you get to the urban fringe.
City dwellers go from 10 feet, or 5 feet between houses, down to houses touching each other, and in some cases using a common wall to both houses.
The country that railroad appears in, is probably one where the population density is so great, they may have 1 person for every 100 sq. ft. of land. When there is no place else to expand to, you take over what is available.
I've seen old passenger terminals get sold off, usually to commercial enterprises, but in some cases sold as a residence.
You only need to look around Kirkwood, Glendale, Webster Groves, and even Valley Park to see what I mean.

i suppose the proximity to the trains becomes so ingrained that they barely notice them any more. you just go on autopilot.

there's a blinking street light up a wee grade on the other side of the road from punkin's bedroom. at first it would wake her up going on...................... and off...........................and on.............. and.... if she forgot to close the curtains tightly.

now she doesn't notice, but if i'm sitting in her room, i have to close the curtains or it drives me batty.

at our previous place there was a highway maybe half a km away and as the noise was not regular, or steady, we had a hard time tolerating it.

When I first moved to Kirkwood, our apartment complex had a train track about 150 feet behind us.
It took me almost six months to when I no longer heard them anymore.
I had a friend who lived near train tracks also. He probably could no longer hear them anymore either.
Which is how he ended up driving right into the side of a passing train and got killed.
Although we have trains here too, I hear them once again, but not enough to wake me up from a sound sleep.