Smashing Coins On A Train Track

My mother's father used to work on the railroad and my mother gave me a flattened out penny that was given to her by her father and she said that he said it was run over by a train. It is really flattened out. I'll have to dig it out someday and post a photo. I haven't looked it in many years, but from what I remember, no image of the coin can be seen on it.

They are just trying to protect people, but they could have just given him a warning instead.

Maybe they liked his metal detector and wanted to keep it?

Not even a slight possibility where I live. We have commuter trains criss crossing all over the area. Major train freight yards in several directions. By me you can't walk more than a mile without crossing or walking along side RR tracks. And if that isn't enough, I'm a few miles from an airport, trucking companies, a steel mill and almost any type of factory imaginable. If anyone wanted to arrest someone for walking along or crossing a train track, they would end up arresting a million people a year here.