SAFETY IS PRIORITY NUMBER ONE - All Aboard: The Complete North American Train Travel Guide - page 220

• Even with their shoes on, kids running around loose onboard
or on the station platform cause real heartburn for Amtrak
people. A lot can happen to an uncontrolled youngster, and
none of it is good. Keep them on a tight leash. (See chap-
ter 6, “Life Onboard,” for some ideas on how to keep them
occupied.)
• If you find yourself in the upper berth in a sleeping car, hook
up the restraining straps designed to keep you from falling
out. After all, you're sleeping on a moving train, and it's a
long way down.
• Most people don't think so, but it really can be dangerous to
open the hinged window in a vestibule door to look out of the
train or to take pictures, particularly at high speeds. Dust and
debris from the track often flies up into the vacuum created
by the moving train, and there can be very little clearance
between the train and objects it passes.
• As you ought to do on a plane or when spending the night in
a hotel, be sure you know how to get out of the railcar in a
hurry if you should have to do so. A number of windows in
every car serve as emergency exits. Each is clearly marked and
will have a red handle on it. Pull on that handle to remove
the rubber gasket holding the window in place, then push the
glass out.
Bottom line for all this talk about safety: the railroads have
their acts together pretty well. All it really takes for the rest of us
to be safe is common sense.