This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids.

I'm the host of the show, Jane Lindholm.

My job is to help answer some of the really terrific questions you send us from around the world.

Most of the time, Melody Bodett and I do our research and reporting from our home state

of Vermont in the northeastern part of the United States.

But whenever one of us travels somewhere else, we like to take you with us.

I had to go to Washington DC last week for work, and so I brought my microphone and recording

equipment with me because Melody had found the perfect person to help answer some questions

you've been sending us about...

Trains!

Maybe you take underground trains known as subways or metros or the L depending on what city

you live in all the time.

Or perhaps you've slept on a train on an overnight trip to somewhere far away.

Or maybe, like I did when I was a kid, you have a spot where you like to watch the trains

full of all kinds of cargo rumbled by and you count the cars one by one until you lose track.

There are lots of kinds of trains all around the world.

But as I said, today we are taking your questions to the headquarters of the U.S.'s main long

distance passenger rail service called Amtrak.

My name is Patrick Kidd and I'm a communications leader at Amtrak and also the in-house historian.

In-house historian, so you know everything about trains.

Well, I'm trying to learn everything.

I think I'll take a whole lifetime to do that.

...