[2011G6E]

I've done it heaps of times...they tend to flatten more on one side than the other, but they don't vibrate off the track. A loaded coal train weighs 10,000 tonnes all up, however, after the first set of wheels goes over the coin, it will fall off the line, so it only has the 120 to 130 tonnes of locomotive squashing it.

Many people think a wheel on the track is a "flat steel surface pressing on a flat steel surface"...it isn't. The rail head is slightly convex, and the wheel itself slopes from a larger diameter at the inner edge near the flange, to a smaller diameter outer edge. This allowed the wheel to ride up the rail and in effect give a differential effect in a turn...one wheel will be riding on the "smaller" portion of it's diameter and the other on the larger portion, allowing it to go around the curve without skidding one wheel. So it isn't like putting a coin under a press between two flat bits of steel, it's way more complex than that.

NOW, the disclaimer...I work driving trains, I know all the safety and distances and safe working rules and regulations.

I am NOT a numptie walking into the rail corridor to lean down in front of an approaching train and put a coin on the track. Do not do it, we will turn you into paste. Besides the fact that if we see anyone in the corridor who doesn't belong, the police get called, and you have some heavy explaining to do.