Yeah, we live in the mountain west and my family live on the East Coast.  Flying is a pain.  When my son was young, he went through a phase where he loved trains.  We looked into taking a train instead of a plain.  I can't remember exactly, but want to say it was several thousand dollars per person and 2-3 days travel.  We would've had to drive 5.5 hours from our home just to get to the train.  We quickly decide it was a no go.

We live with a train track running along the edge of our property.  I've thought it would be awesome to get a caboose or cabin car, build a little offshoot track to store the car on, and hook onto passing freight trains.  It sounds awesome, but even if we spent the money to buy the car and build the off-shoot track, I have doubts on being able to schedule pickup by a passing train.  I don't think it will ever be a reality, but I can dream.