On the way to an event on another listing site, I finally stopped at the NC transportation museum, with the intent of riding the train and having a look around at the displays, before heading on to the event in the afternoon. I don't know how many times we'd zoomed by on I-85 without stopping here before. It was also Pirate day at the museum, so the place was full of people dressed in pirate costumes, which was even more entertaining - Pirates riding trains! Unfortunately, the person before me in the ticket line got the last ticket for the morning train ride. So I walked down along the waiting train to the caboose, and noticed plenty of empty space on a couple cars. Just as I was working up the nerve to jump on the train like a hobo, along came the brakeman. I mentioned my intent, and he said he'd find out if I could ride on one of the empty cars, which weren't being heated. So, short story long, the conductor said I could ride on the engine with the engineer!