Noise protection options against railway tracks in the garden

Hello everyone,
I hope I am in the right section. We are looking for an existing property and had a viewing today. First, about the real estate situation in our city: It is very tight; there is a high demand and only a few houses. Therefore, we think it over three or four times whether to make compromises here and there.

We really liked the house today; it fit well in terms of condition, size, layout, and generally also the location. The only catch: The house wall is 15m away from railway tracks (elevated on an embankment). Unfortunately, the garden is also directly adjacent to the tracks.

There are already some topics on the forum about whether people get used to it. Opinions on this vary widely. My question is, what can you really do about it? What is the use of a noise barrier or a fence? What do noise protection windows bring? What is the benefit of planting (e.g., trees)?

What are your experiences otherwise? We are having a very hard time making the decision since the house itself is really beautiful.

Thank you for any answers!

Best regards, Marius

what and how often do trains run there -
passenger traffic / S-Bahn every 10 minutes?
freight trains?
How far is the nearest station, i.e. do the trains run evenly or do they brake/accelerate?
Do trains run there at night as well?
I would consider that carefully.

You can get used to trains well, but 15m is very close, almost feels like being in the living room.

That would be too close for me, but I am rather noise sensitive.

It will be a combination of all the points you mentioned.
You can only build a wall or something similar on your own property, meaning the noise still passes by the sides. Therefore, it is actually useless and only makes sense if built continuously along the route.

What are your experiences otherwise?

You can definitely get the house quiet from the inside - but then don’t open any windows.
In the garden you will ALWAYS have noise, more or less.

For me that is a deal breaker, because I don’t want to hole up in the house all year and I’m not into noise (whether busy street/highway or train or airport).

The above depends, however, on who drives by there and how often. With a bit of "luck" you will also feel the trains when they rush past...

Do you mean the glasses in the cabinet clinking? Actually, that might be possible if the railway embankment and the house happen to be founded in the same soil layer.

Sit down and listen during the day. Weekdays and weekends. It really makes a difference whether the ICE passes there several times a day or a freight train once during the night.