Opportunity to build on a plot of land next to the suburban railway line?

S-Bahn trains are not only generally designed to be quieter, but also much shorter than freight trains. I can imagine that is much better, especially since the property is also quite long. Dense shrubs also absorb quite a bit.

Regarding noise, I would generally like to point out that you are never really safe from it. At least a railway track is fairly predictable. Personally, I find the neighbor with the lawn-mowing obsession worse, who starts up the petrol mower four times a week and "relaxes" for hours (if anyone knows Juli Zeh's Unterleuten). Then there's the next neighbor who brings out his mower as soon as the first one is done, because sometimes you have to mow, what would the neighbors think otherwise. The third neighbor keeps his motorcycle running, the fourth grills every other summer day with his 10 friends until 10 p.m. with music. And the children practice cannonballs at the pool persistently (I like children very much – but this was about noise ). When you feel safe outside, away from all neighbors, surrounded only by fields – then the combine harvesters pass by. Or croaking frogs.

I just want to say – there is always something. You never know what will come. It will never be guaranteed quiet.

Measuring the volume can definitely make sense. Then you might be able to estimate how much noise would still remain inside the house. If the noise pollution is not too bad, you could consider using the house as sound insulation for the garden. In other words, if I can insulate the house so well that the train noise inside is not disturbing, I use the house to insulate the garden. So rather the house towards the railway and the garden towards the front.

The same applies to the floor plan. Sleeping and living rooms to the front and storage rooms, etc. towards the railway.

I think the idea of camping is good.

I once lived 20m away from a busy railway line. Even that was manageable. You just had to pause a phone call when a train passed by. Otherwise, it was quite alright. You filter out quite a lot.

Trains are still the "most pleasant" noise of all, much more predictable than annoying car noise or constantly barking neighbors and neighbors' dogs, for example.

Would be a no-brainer for me. The alternative is obviously the rental apartment, so just do it and don’t think about it at all. In my opinion, everyone is right who says that regular, familiar noise sources are significantly less annoying than, for example, revving engines, family quarrels, or endless barbecue parties in the neighborhood. Really, that little bit of S-Bahn noise is probably pretty irrelevant.

I once lived 10m in a straight line from a rental apartment, it's not a big deal after a month you no longer notice the S-trains even if the walls sometimes shake (the trains here in Berlin pass by every 3 minutes at times). You really have to try it yourself to see if you find it okay or not.