Your report reminds me of an old story -
Back in the mid-1990's the National Association of Railroad Passengers held their annual 'Region 5' meeting in Fayetteville, NC where I was living at the time. I volunteered to help producing name tags and working the registration table for the event which was held in the Prince Charles Hotel, a recently renovated classic railroad hotel located across the parking lot from the Amtrak Station.
The Saturday evening meetings were being held in the 8th floor ballroom complete with an outdoor balcony overlooking the former ACL line through downtown. The meetings went on, presenters presented, questions were asked, questions were answered....... and then about 9:40pm we heard a train blowing for a crossing a few blocks north of the hotel.
The local organizer of the meeting stood and said "That would be the southbound Auto-Train." Everyone in the room stood up, walked out to the balcony, and watched the Auto-Train pass. Once the last auto carrier was out of sight headed towards Florida, the attendees returned to their seats without a word and the speaker picked up again as if nothing had happened.
Absolutely surreal.