A method for prediction of community noise exposure in the vicinity of a railroad yard, knowing its operations and layout, has been developed. Requirements of the technique were (1) applicability to a yard of arbitrarily defined operation and layout, (2) ability to accurately measure existing noise levels for use as reference data, and (3) consistency of methodology with possible government regulatory monitoring procedures. The method selected involves development of noise contours based upon the average maximumA‐weighted noise levels of individual events projected in the community. This method satisfied the needs for a workable noise prediction technique within the current state‐of‐the‐art. The advantages of this technique are as follows: (1) it may be accurately tailored to any yard configuration by a building block approach which allows inclusion of all significant sources of noise; (2) it utilizes easily measured quantities (in dBA) which are largely independent of the variables which affect noise output by virtue of usage of average maximum noise levels for each operation; (3) it does not require precise location of specific noise sources‐but rather assigns certain operations to broad areas of tracks over which these operations would logically occur; (4) it accounts for level of yard operation activity, and (5) it provides a conservative working instrument for railroads to assess the potential impact of their yard operations on the surrounding community. Supporting data were taken at four railroad yards in the Los Angeles area representing a broad range of yard activity.