As far as not hearing an approaching train... just remember, the engine isn't necessarily at the 'front' of the train! They run just as well 'backwards' as forwards and could be pushing!
That said, the railroads that I'm near are all very near or part of yards... the trains through the area are moving quite slow and I've never had any problem hearing them before I can see them. (Even the one's 'pushing' a train of cars... the wheels are fairly loud)
Luckily I don't normally have to cross any tracks (my route goes under them)... except on Friday afternoons, and that's at a marked crossing with gates and I've only encountered a train there once.
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"There is no greater wonder than the way the face and character of a woman fit so perfectly in a man's mind, and stay there, and he could never tell you why. It just seems it was the thing he most wanted." Robert Louis Stevenson
