If CSX Transportation had decided to keep running trains on the tracks that cut through the backyards of homes and businesses in Sarasota, Florida, there’s not much the property owners could have done about it, other than buying some earplugs.

After all, the people who owned the land back in 1910 granted right-of-way easements to build the railroad. Trains, whistles, noise, pollution—all part of the deal.