Despite being an Angeleno, I've actually taken the train a good bit.  My mom and I used to ride the Amtrack Coast Starliner up to visit her parents in Washington state, back in the 80's when it was cheaper to do this than to fly.  Once the AC broke somewhere around Oregon, making it a rather unpleasant trip, and sometimes they ran out of food, but aside from that I can't really say there were any adventures with Amtrack.

Now that I'm in Japan, the lines are robotically efficient.  The town I live in is connected by two semi-local commuter lines with rock-solid schedules and performance.  I once got on the train going the wrong direction late at night, but was able to ride it back the other way.  Not much in the way of misadventures here, either.  As long as you can figure out the routes and stations, I don't know if it's possible to have a misadventure on a Japanese train.