Nah, I was just having a go at you! I am serious though, that I don't know enough about the subject to speak on it. I do know that the trains here travel long distances and often slow down enough to allow a person to climb aboard. I'm sure the travelers that wish to do so know the areas where that's likely to happen. The conductor used to be responsible for keeping riders off the freights and I imagine technically they still are. I'm sure when a North American train crosses the border with either Mexico or Canada and the US, they probably get the whole treatment... infrared scanners, heart beat detectors, carbon dioxide measurements, dog searches etc., but I don't think they get that treatment at every yard and siding. It's a big country and fairly devoid of people in many places. Hobos riding the rails are an old romantic tradition going back many years, in fact there's a movie about it set in the steam age called "Emperor of the North". In the past decade there has been an upswing in the practice. Serial killers have been known to use the freight trains to move around (and kill people). It's a very dangerous fad for young people who have no idea the kind of people that also do so. I've even seen blogs about it, with advice about embarking and disembarking moving trains.
Who knows what "Homeland Security" does about freight trains now days, but whatever it is, is sure to be not enough! The odd thing is, rather than planting a nasty on the freight train, it would be easy enough to just sabatogue the tracks where you would like an incident to take place, most trains carry at least one hazardous material.
I don't know how often tracks are inspected, whether it's consistent, or if it varys in different parts of the country.
If I did, I wouldn't say, we're probably both on some FBI watch list by now!:hehe: