Where the hell IS this?

Not Brooklyn. Try Chicago.

[quote] Who would live in such close proximity to train tracks?

Need you ask?

I believe it r1.

I thought Chicago too--I grew up there and took the El a lot and passed buildings just that close to the tracks.

The trains get pretty close to homes in Brooklyn too but there’s usually a barrier

Uh, that’s the World Trade Center in the background so obviously it’s New York City.

That’s freedom tower, right r6?

I lived in an apartment that close to tracks overseas. The train came by every two minutes, eighteen hours a day. People say you get used to noise. You cannot get used to noise like that. In the end I went insane and pooped right on the tracks, letting the trains know just what I thought of them.

Is that actually in Manhattan and if so where?

It’s not manhattan, the Hudson yards tracks never had an unobstructed view of the freedom tower.

It looks like Coney Islands yard depot. But I can’t think of a spot where there’s a building that close to the track.

No. When coming south into the city on Amtrak, you go by this, so it's in South Queens.

A couple of years ago I stayed in a Pullman Hotel located in Brussels Midi station. My room faced the rail yard where all of the trains passed through the station. I was amazed that I didn't hear any noise or vibration from the trains. Nothing. The view from the room wasn't so great.

I believe it is the Sunnyside Yard in Queens. You can see the building on the lower right

Here's a train that goes through apartments in China.

I grew up a few blocks from a Brooklyn elevated subway, and we could hear it rumbling by but it never seemed that bothersome to me. I think being near an airport in the flight path would be way worse. But I’ve been in buildings in manhattan that shake with the subway under them, and i don’t think i could get used to that.

Bangkok train

It is one of those buildings on the curve to the right which will point south and the WTC will be in the southern distance.

Tokyo Japan

Toronto

Knowing the Japanese and their technology, that is a Bullet Train track in R18.

Hanoi

Honey Boo Boo's old house

I think you’re right, r13. So is the building actually offices or warehouses?

I really have no idea but from OP's photo, it looks like a warehouse that was converted to condos.

R13

r14's photo is of a monorail. They don't make much noise. Judging by the width of that train bed in r18, that track is used by a less powerful train or one that doesn't go that way so frequently. Bullet train track beds are much wider.

R25, it was a joke.

- R18

The elevated subway trains in NYC (this is Astoria) are very close to apartments.

You New Yorkers are lightweights!

My building in Berkeley. Amtrak is a breeze (fast). Freight trains going to Port of Oakland (always in the middle of the night because the tracks cut through local streets) are a different story.

You do get used it to though.

I adore that picture at r18, looks like a nice little neighborhood.

Honey badger train don't care, r28. She just rolls through the market place like she don't even know you're there.

R30 I want to step into that picture, it is so cute. A few pots of colorful flowers do much to brighten up a scene.

Man, I bet the produce and fish that gets right under that train @R28 costs extra 'cause you get that added dirt/grease flavor. Yum.

Looks like the back side of Arris Lofts (2006 condo conversion) 27-28 Thomson Ave in Long Island City, close to the CUNY School of Law. Of course the fancy web site doesn’t show that view ;).

I suppose it's better than living with this:

Looks nice. The rumble of the train and the whistle would probably be very romantic. Curb appeal if you will. I'm sure those tracks are rarely used if at all.

R1 and R4 are absolute idiots! Chicago? LOL

Chicagoans are thinking of scenes like this

Laurel.

[quote]Here's a train that goes through apartments in China.

Here's a train that goes through a hotel in Disney World.

Looks like the JZ

Does anyone else watch the cab view videos on YouTube? I’m addicted.

When I lived in New York City in the late 70's-early 80's I well remember taking the train from GCC up to Westchester & going through Harlem on the elevated section with the old ratty apartment buildings right across from the tracks. In the boiling summer months there would be people literally sitting in the open windows as the train went by, looking as if they were about to die from the heat. I always wondered if they ran to the windows in hopes of getting a waft of air from the passing trains.

I love the Chinese train through the apartment building... They sure make the BEST stuff, don't they?

In Chicago a large part was due to the lateness of the El and subway lines. Chicago was literally flooded with lawsuits from 1900 to 1940, every time they wanted to dig for a subway or put up an El they got sued. So Chicago took to putting the Els in smaller streets and alleyways, where the lawsuits wouldn't exist or could be won easily, or the people could be bought off cheaply.

This lead to Els very close to buildings and it killed Chicago's growth as their subways started in the 40s, long after the car was established and WWII, prevented most of the construction, by the time the war ended it was too late.

I remember in the 70s we drove to Brooklyn to visit an old aunt, her apartment window faced elevated subway tracks and when the train went by the apartment rumbled. I was fascinated, and you have to remember this was the lawless NY of the 70s so the trains were covered top to bottom in graffiti. If you want an idea how her Brooklyn neighborhood looked like back then, watch ‘The Exorcist’ when Father Damian returns to his mothers apartment in Hells Kitchen. Granted, it’s a complete different borough, but the street decay was exactly the same. Abandoned cars, overflowing metal trash cans, graffiti, etc. Whatever neighborhood my old aunt lived in must now be completely gentrified now.

The Chinese train through the building was actually put into the building which was already standing, because space is of a premiym in whatever city that is, and building around the apartment complex was impossible.

It’s a light rail system and very narrow so it didn’t result in too many tenants being bought out. The construction company put in massive noise dampeners so that the train coming through is no louder than a dishwasher running.

Uh, it’s like this in major cities all over the world, you flyover rubes.

[quote] her apartment window faced elevated subway tracks

Now that's something I'd like to see. Elevated subways. LOL

Toronto actually looks more like the pic at R5.

It is a funny phrase. R49, but in the person's defense, the entire system is called the subway.

Yeah, asshole.

R22 Traaaaaaaaaaaaaaainnnnnnnnn.. Fuck, I miss them

That's Long Island City. The apartments are super luxe and expensive, too. The Long Island Rail Road commuter trains run through there and occassionally some freight via CSX.

[quote]Now that's something I'd like to see. Elevated subways. LOL

As if your statement wasn'd dumb enough, you had to end it with a frauish LOL.

This is a well known London housing project built right by a train track. You're probably seen it in countless British crime shows, usually there is a suspect running away by jumping down from one of the terraces.

***You've probably seen it

[quote]If you want an idea how her Brooklyn neighborhood looked like back then, watch ‘The Exorcist’ when Father Damian returns to his mothers apartment in Hells Kitchen.

I thought she lived somewhere like Spanish Harlem.

[quote]This is a well known London housing project built right by a train track. You're probably seen it in countless British crime shows, usually there is a suspect running away by jumping down from one of the terraces.

R56, I used to live near that estate as a kiddie. I remember it going up. It replaced a lovely old street called Alexandra Road.

But we lived two blocks away on the other side of Boundary Road. The boundary separated the two boroughs and we lived in a very posh townhouse. You can cross the street in London and enter a different world.

I'll say!

The apartment complex where I live abuts on the local train tracks. Before I moved in I checked the acoustics, none of my windows face the train tracks and I'm about a block away with buildings in between my home and the trains, so I'm fine.

The units that face directly onto the train tracks rent for a lot less.

My mother lived in an apartment on the 3rd Avenue El on the Upper East Side. Before air conditioning, so the windows had to be left open. She actually has fond memories of it. Shortly after, they tore it down and the Lexington Avenue subway Line was put in. Hard to believe that 3rd Ave used to be El-facing tenements.

R54 yes, see the link at R34

R56 Brutalist slums for Britain's welfare class.

Jesus r56, that is HIDEOUS.

R56 wow the UK really went bonkers for frightful brutalist architecture

My great-uncle's house in Cedar Grove, IN. My Mom had told me that their house had been right next to the railroad, but I honestly had no idea that it ran that close to the house (it's to the left of the house). I took my Mom back to her old home-town (really, her Grandmother's home-town) and she filled me in on all the buildings and relatives who lived there. Don't lose the chance to do that, DL. You may think your family history doesn't matter, but you may be surprised when it helps you understand things.

R56 Intellectuals ask themselves if putting human beings into these Brutalist buildings turn them into the brutes like those seen in 'Clockwork Orange'.

The answer?

A 50 something year old guy is getting laid left and right by 20somethings?

Flyoverstan thread. Blocked.