"I used to, when I was a kid." We'd sit by the tracks and count the cars as the train went by. The only one I've ever ridden was at Knott's Berry Farm (amusement park), so my experience with them is rather limited. I do know that when I was younger there seemed to be a lot awareness of them than there seems to be now. A lot of train songs back then.
Yes, all aspects of train travel appeal to me. I love hearing them during the night too. I want to take the perimeter trip by train. It would be fun to do with a few people. Who wants to go; we could make it an AM thing. Everyone could board at their closest depot and we could ride and see all the way around the country.
Yes, but some at least of Britain's rail companies have done themselves no favours by recently hiking fares by about 3.5%.
Doesn't sound much... unless you are a commuter.
Just to make it more fun, the company that's taken over running our area's services to London are shortening the fastest services to London by an insignificant 12 minutes for the 130mile trip - but at cost of reducing frequency and making the services at least two intermediate stations unattractive to use by moving them to a wholly unnecessary re-routing meaning you would now have to change trains on what were all right to and from London.