You would think sitting on top of the coal in the car they’d be able to see the coal dropping out the bottom of the cars ahead of them (that’s what was done here). Feel it too as it got closer. Unless they were in the first car of course.
Maybe they were asleep. Who knows, but man how stupid. Doesn’t seem like it’s the first time they hopped a train.
You would think, but I see so many people who are so situationally impaired these days with their silly cell phones, their iPods and earbuds, etc. They wander the planet in their own little world of self-induced noise isolation. Then again, maybe they were asleep.
The train might also have unloaded in the dark. They can certainly be loaded in the dark. I drive past coal mines in the Powder River Basin here in Wyoming every month and there are times you see the light of a train going into the coal loading area... and the only light is on the engine. The train just slows to a crawl as it goes under the coal loading tower and automation handles the rest. Out comes 100 to 105 cars loaded with 100+ tons of PRB sub-bituminous coal...