Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

Sometimes you can negotiate an "unauthorized student trip" if know a
hoghead or train crew. I made many of them back in the 70's-80's.
Spent a few weekends seeing what the "other half" do for a living.
For sure my most miserable experience was a journey eastbound
through the Cascade Tunnel in a SD45 "second in the consist". I had
my head buried in my coat trying to breathe for over 20 minutes.
I lived. The best experience was riding the "head-end" of BN train 003,
the Pacific Zip, 4 SD-45's lashup in a "snow over the rails" trip westbound
over Stevens Pass. The air is much better in the lead unit going thru the
tunnel