We bought a new house nearly 2 miles from the train tracks and thought we were safe from the noise. Once inside the BR, we were in for a rude awakening (literally and physically!). For some reason the trains blow the horns for over 3 minutes each time one passes, and that can ruin a nights sleep in a hurry. For over a year, we abandoned our master bedroom in favor of a smaller 'jack and jill' bedroom upstairs on the other side of the house away from the tracks. We didn't think we could ever sleep in that room without noise-cancelling ear plugs. Fortunately two things happened, #1) I changed mattresses and ended up standing the old mattress on its side between the bed and window. I couldn't believe that it made a difference, but it did. Inspired by that, I added the heaviest 4 ply version of these curtains, and it made it even better. Finally, I downloaded a white-noise app on my android that is somewhat tuned to the frequency of train horns (you can try white noise, brown noise, and every other 'color' of noise). All 3 steps were important, but I wouldn't have been happy with the final product without these heavy, noise blocking curtains! As for the curtains themselves, they are lovely (not that I care about looks, LOL), I used light blocking curtain rods so the curtains slide across the 'end pieces' to block more light. Colors are vivid and they look like they are made to last. Regardless, they work so well, I would buy more if they didnt last. As you can tell by the tenor of this review, I am thrilled with the curtains and consider them one of our best purchases of 2023.