But within hours, Johnny ‘‘Lulu’’ Lawler was dead after a 7000-tonne Pacific National coal train hit him as he stood on the tracks and leant on the platform at the town railway station.

Police are looking at closed circuit television footage which showed the 46-year-old – a Scone resident his whole life, respected drover and one-time horse trainer – hanging around the station after 2am before getting onto the tracks.

He was seen walking north along the tracks before stopping and leaning on the platform, unaware a train was approaching.

‘‘He was one of nature’s gentlemen,’’ friend Greg Bennett said. ‘‘He spent a hell of a lot of time looking after other people; that was the kind of bloke he was.’’

Mr Lawler’s mother Barbara, 72, said her son ‘‘didn’t deserve to go like that’’.

‘‘He was his own worst enemy. He looked after a lot of people. I got phone calls from all his friends all morning. He was a very popular boy.’’

Mr Lawler spent Sunday watching minor premiers Scone Thoroughbreds play Aberdeen in the major semi-final.

It was unclear why he was at the station at 2am and why he was standing on the tracks.

His death has reignited calls for a $31million overpass to be built at the New England Highway level crossing, the highway’s only level crossing.

With the coal train blocking the highway until mid-morning when the scene was cleared, traffic was diverted through a nearby level crossing nearby which was also almost blocked.

‘‘I am very frustrated with the whole process,’’ Upper Hunter mayor Lee Watts said.

‘‘In the big scheme of things it is a small amount of money; this is a huge issue and we need to look to the future and have it built.’’

A spokesman for NSW Transport minister John Robertson failed to answer questions about what the state government had planned for the level crossing.

Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon said although it was a state road and state rail corridor, some funding could be found with the new mining tax.