In general, it’s safe to say that railfans seem to prefer watching and/or photographing passenger trains to riding on them. In many cases, this is related to the fact that there are few, or no, opportunities to take a short, relatively inexpensive ride just for the experience.
In some areas, (think South Dakota, for example), there simply isn’t any regular service available. And even in cases where there is, now that Amtrak has adopted airline-style pricing, wh...