Trains

Not a real train . . . . . an art studio

I have discovered an interesting connection between trains and RV parks while on this trip. We have very few trains left in Nova Scotia, and many of the old rail lines are now Trans Canada Trails, so trains are no longer part of our lives.

On the trip to Tennessee with Regis’ mom and uncle & aunt last year, her Aunt Monie asked us to try to find campgrounds away from trains, because on another trip, she had one sleepless night due to loud trains. We only had one night where a train was heard, but on this trip I learned to appreciate her concern with trains.

We have had a lot of campgrounds that were in close proximity to trains, and at least three that had trains running directly behind the trailer. Of course this fact is rarely advertised in the campground books and flyers, and the tracks are usually hidden by trees, so unless someone mentions it in online reviews, you don’t find out about they until you get settled and the train goes by.

The worse was the campground in Lake Louise. There was an emergency exit from the park close to our site, and because it was not a regular road, it did not have an elevated crossing or automated lights and barrier system, so every train had to blow it’s whistle to warn of it’s approach. And, there were trains all day and all night.

I have decided there is a connection between these trains and the RV parks. I got to wondering why there seemed to be so many trains so close to campgrounds, and I think I have a theory . . .

A Train Behind the Trees

Trains are loud, so no one really wants to live right next to train tracks, so houses and apartments are build with a buffer between the tracks and where people live. That then gives you some perfectly good land, often nicely positioned to services and attractions, that is not worth much. It is good for business and industry, but someone also figured out that it could also work for RV parks. After all, the people who use them are only there for a couple of nights, and then on to another park. If the park has “seasonal” (those folks who use their RV as a “camp” and leave it in one place all year), can take the sites as far away from the tracks as possible, leaving the ones bordering on the tracks for the transient campers.

To be honest, we have sort of gotten used to the sound of trains rumbling by in the middle of the night, and although the last two nights we were not close to tracks, we listened and were pleased to hear trains in the distance.