I wish we had rail service here! I'd actually be able to travel alone to go visit my family if I could just do it by train. Unfortunately, the nearest station is over 2 hours' drive north
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I rode the train, specifically Amtrak's Coast Starlight, between Salem and Seattle so many times during the 1990s that I could name every station stop going either northward or southward between those cities. I rode the train so many times that much later, a conductor trusted me enough to tell me the used to take bets. A little explanation is in order here...
1. I will never again ride a train and NOT have a camera.
2. The Talgo trains, which are Italian-made bullet trains, SUCK if you are either taller or shorter than average (and I'm much shorter) or have any kind of back problem (which I do). I learned that after like 2 trips and that was that, it was the Starlight or nothing, because the Coast Starlight is a "superliner" train. 2-story silver cars with the stripes (the coastal Talgos are white with maroon & dark green decoration), lower story reserved for people like me who are dangerous on the stairs (balance problems) and other challenges.
3. If you can, always take a superliner and sit on the bottom floor. It's reserved for elderly & handicapped passengers, but the Americans with Disabilities Act makes it illegal for them to demand proof. The lower floor has fewer seats that are further apart.
My usual MO used to be get on the train, wait until I was sure no one needed the seat next to mine, pull out the other seat's footrest, wad up my jacket into a pillow on the armrest under the window, curl up, and sleep. (I didn't have a camera or I'd have been awake every trip.) The next to last time I rode the Starlight , which goes from Seattle to LA and back again, was when I moved to Canada at the end of my busy decade. Since I didn't have the right documentation to cross the border by train, I hopped off in Bellingham, WA and a Canadian friend drove over and picked me up.
I rode the Starlight one time after that, and that was when a conductor who recognized me told me about the betting pool. They'd get a quick whiteboard pool together every time I got on the train, maximum bet $2, betting on which station calls would wake me up. The guy who told me about it said he won $30 on my last trip, because a hunch told him to only play Centralia/Chehalis.
And yeah, if I had the money and the Empire Builder superliner route is still active (Seattle-Chicago & back), I would TOTALLY ride the train through the Rockies with my 2 cameras and the 32-gig memory card! If there was a rail link from Missoula to the stations near the Canadian border, I'd be all over resuming rail travel!