“how could you not hear the train”
I worked for the BN railroad and one day at Tascosa I discovered that an empty unit coal train coasting down a hill at 60 mph on welded rail can be very quite. I wasn’t very close to the track, but was looking the other way and didn’t hear it until it zoomed right by me.
Minor issue in light of his demise, but wouldn’t he have been trespassing?
Back in 2001 I had a summer engineering internship with Amtrak. I spend a good deal of time out on the North East Corridor with the surveyors. You can’t hear these electrics, AT ALL, and they are bearing down on you at 120 MPH. These days the Acelas are clocking a buck fiddy on the long tangents. High pucker factor... because it’s not like you can just hop off the track and be in the clear if you are on one of the middle tracks.