When I was a kid, trains used to go through my town a few times a day. My house was less than two blocks away from the tracks and my best friend lived right next to them. We spent a lot of times on or near the tracks and used to ride our horses on them from her house to where her dad worked about a mile up the tracks. Sometimes a train would come and we'd have to run like crazy to get out of the way. Since it was right on the edge of town the train would either be just picking up speed or slowed way down to enter town. Either way, we were never in danger of being squished I guess but it was exhilarating at that age.
They took the tracks out years ago and it's now the walking trail I walk every morning with the dog. I still have a fascination for trains and get my fix every two weeks when I take Christopher to his dads. Every single time I go up there I see a train on my way out to his place. This morning there was no train so I stopped in McDonalds and sat in the big window where I had an unobstructed view of the tracks across the road. Waited for a train that never came. Todd doesn't share my excitement so he ran out of patience and we had to come home without seeing one. Damn it!! Stupid rain and now no train.
I did find this cool youtube video of a coal train though. It'll have to do for now.