At the Station Inn bed and breakfast in Cresson, Pa., the accommodations are also the destination, reports Eugene L. Meyer in the New York Times (10/30/09). The accommodations actually are nothing luxurious: "There's no air-conditioning, no television of any kind, no in-room phones. Nor is there a fitness center, a Jacuzzi, a sauna or a pool. The beds are all twins." What there is, though, is, a front porch that sits "150 feet from a major railroad artery." The inn's guests, mostly retired men, just like to sit there and watch the trains go by.

"We're not a regular, typical B-and-B," says Tom Davis, proprietor. Seriously. The building itself is vintage 1866, a former hotel that Tom converted 15 years ago into "a rail fan's dream come true, with the clackety-clack of flange on steel as a soundtrack." The Station Inn (814-886-4757) is located some "75 miles east of Pittsburgh," but guests come from as far away as Germany and Japan, just to monitor dispatchers, take pictures and talk "train trivia for happy hour upon happy hour, far into the night."

After all, there's not much time for sleep with trains rumbling by every 45 minutes or so throughout the night. The inn's seven rooms range in price from $55.50 to $120 a night, with the most luxurious room offering its guest a view of the tracks from bed. "The vibration is music to rail fans, the brute power of it, it's kind of like icing on the cake," says Ken Heil, a guest. All of this has attracted a loyal clientele, with the average guest staying at the Station Inn 11 times. For "rail-fan widows," meanwhile, there's the Logan Valley Mall in nearby Altoona.