All Randy Walschaert wants is a good night’s sleep.

For weeks, Walschaert’s slumber has been disrupted by the sound of a 100-ton Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway locomotive idling through the night, less than 100 feet behind his house.

“That thing has been there for three weeks, idling,” said the 56-year-old Auburn man. “I don’t why they do it, but they sometimes store their locomotives back here, and they leave them running.

For more than 14 years, Walschaert has lived on 8th Street between Auburn Way and M Street, adjacent to the Stampede Pass spur that runs parallel to state Route 18 in downtown Auburn.

“I knew when I moved here, I signed up for trains going by during the day, three or four a day,” Walschaert said. “But I didn’t sign up for locomotives in my backyard idling all night. They’re just rumbling and grumbling all night long. The air brakes hiss, every five or 10 minutes the air tanks release. And they stink the place up with their diesel stench. It makes for a terrible sleep.”

Walschaert said it’s not the first time a locomotive has idled behind his house.

“In the last five or six years it’s been a problem,” Walschaert said. “It’s a double-track back there, so they sometimes store things back there. I’ve talked to my neighbors also, and they’re at their wits’ end.”

Last year a locomotive parked idling at night for more than a month, Walschaert said. Frustrated with the noise, he reached out to BNSF.

“They said something about operational this or operational that,” Walschaert said. “But they pretty much shined me on. Bottom line is they didn’t do anything about it.”

This year, when the problem began, Walschaert said he sent an e-mail to BNSF and contacted Joe Welsh, transportation planner for the City of Auburn, to see what the City could do.

“Operationally, I understand they (BNSF) have to move things around,” Walschaert said. “I don’t have a problem with them doing this during the day. But at night I just wish they park their locomotives somewhere else if they have to keep them idling. I don’t understand why they can’t just disconnect that locomotive and take it down the track and get it out of a residential area like this.”

Although the City has no authority over railroads, which are federally regulated, Welsh said he contacted BNSF regarding Walschaert’s concerns.

The Auburn Reporter also contacted BNSF Regional Director of Public Affairs Gus Melonas regarding the idling locomotives, who stated, “This matter will be reviewed by BNSF operations.”

As of Tuesday, it had been five days since a locomotive had idled behind Walschaert’s house.

Welsh, who often drives by to check and see if any locomotives are idling on the spur, said he was hopeful that BNSF had remedied the situation.

“It’d be a win-win for everybody,” Welsh said.

Walschaert, however, is cautious about getting his hopes up.

“Until they do it the next time, I’m satisfied,” Walschaert said. “Every day is a good day they don’t have a locomotive idling there. But I don’t expect much, it’s only been a few days now. If the rest of the winter goes by without a train idling there, then I’ll believe they took care of it. I’m not going to breathe a sigh of relief until then.”