A few tales:

When I went to college the first night I woke up thinking, "What the hell is that?" It was just the trolley bus climbing the hill. Once recognized it never woke me again.

I once phoned a co-worker to get some information. I asked him how far he was from the track. "Why do you ask?", he said. Well the train was pretty loud over the phone and he didn't even notice. I had to explain.

And then there was the guy I met at a meeting in Sacramento. He was a streetcar fan, read foamer. He had recently bought a house with the light rail running on three sides of the lot. The tracks split onto two one-way streets. He was in heaven. "And I got a real deal too!"