When riding the train into Philly, I know what to expect because I have done it more than a few times. It is uneventful and I get there with no hassle. The ride is also fairly short and has not been too crowded every time I have used it.
Traveling to NYC by train is another story. I recently took the train to NYC back in December right after Christmas and before New Years. This has to be one of the most busy times of the year to do this. We had to wait in a long wrap around line to buy train tickets from a machine. Then once we were on the train, it was tough finding seats. Good thing we got a seat though because the closer and closer we got to the city, the train began filling up more and more and people were standing all throughout the aisles. Did I mention this was a double decker train? Cool, but it was PACKED with people. When we got off the train, Penn Station was packed with people too. It was tough finding the other people I went with since our group had to split up to find seats on the train but we found them!
In Alaska we took the train from the Yukon back to Skagway. This was a smooth, scenic ride throughout the mountains. Our passports were checked on board as we left Canada and entered the USA on the train. It was beautiful seeing the snow and old railroad tracks. We were even allowed to go on the platform outside of each train car to be outside and take pictures on our journey. These platforms got crowded but it was still cool.
We also took the train from Denali back to Anchorage. What started as a calm trip turned into a big ordeal, all due to the weather. This train was awesome. It was a double decker train with seating on top with a glass ceiling and a dining car below. There were comfortable seats and they served drinks. It was great! After a while we noticed we were still crawling along at a slow pace. This was because Alaska was going through a warm spell and the ground was warming up and warping the tracks, so we had to go slow to be careful. At one point we had to BACK UP OVER A RAVINE AND WAIT ON THE TRACKS for people to fix the tracks ahead of us. That was really scary. Then we were told that they were unsure of the track condition ahead so they did not know what the arrival time would be. People had flights to catch and people were getting tired of the slow train, so they offered us the option to get off the train and take buses back to Anchorage. So that is what we did. We got off the train and took a 2 hour bus ride back. It was a really cool experience though and it is a shame we could not go faster and see the entire scenic trip. Eating on the train was fun, and being served drinks was different as well. We also saw all kinds of wildlife including moose. It was a great train ride besides the fact we were going slow and could not finish the whole trip. 
Ok, without further ado, here are my pros/cons to traveling by train:
Pros
-comfortable
-can relax and let the train take you to your destination
-bathroom aboard some
-can watch the scenery fly by
-do not need to stop for cars (they stop for you)
Cons
-too many stops
-go backwards depending on seat (can be con if you get motion sickness)
-annoying people when it is crowded
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