“Were these guy deaf, dumb and blind ? How can you not be aware of a frigging train ?”
On occasion my job had me working right next to the BNSF tracks. Lots of fast freights, Amtrak, and Metroliners. One thing I learned is that you couldn’t always rely on your hearing to warn you of an approaching train.
Sometimes you would hear them coming, but other times you’d be busy doing something and it would seem as if some huge train had appeared out of nowhere. At over 60 mph they can be on you in a hurry.
I usually interact with trains at crossings, with bells, lights, horns, etc. so my experience probably doesn’t count for much. It does make sense that a approaching train isn’t loud , the sound perhaps similar to a boat’s wake, the sound is dissappated to the side or rear. Sound is a funny thing. For the childhood house, We could hear trains plain as day, even though the tracks where, as the crow flys, a little over a mile away.