My family moved to a bungalow about a mile towards Rainham from Newington, with our back garden ending at the base of the railway embankment, in April 1958. There were two signals on the down line just before the bridge over Breach Lane, where many freight trains would be kept awaiting the faster passenger trains to pass.
My bedroom was the only one to face towards the line, which was quite spectacularly illuminated by arc lights and welding flashes as the new rails went in.
The embankments were then relatively new, so were only grass (and an amazing display of escaped lupins) which used to get burnt off occasionally.