I don't know where to post this, so I'll post it here and let Flyertalkers circulate the link.
I've been staying the past few days at the Hotel Auteuil (pronounced a-toy) in Geneva Switzerland. My room overlooks the railroad yard just north of the Gare Cornavin rail station.
From Geneva, some trains go north in Switzerland to Lausanne, Montreaux, Basel, Zurich, etc. Some go west into France.
You can see Swiss SBB CFF regional trains and intercity trains. You can see French regional trains and SNCF TGV high speed trains. They all sit in the yard under my window, or they pass by. You can see CISALPINO trains that go to Italy through a tunnel in the Alps. You can see the yard engines shuttling cars and consists around.
You can see occasional freight trains passing through, but most of the action is passenger trains.
And you can take a five minute walk to the station, go up on one of the platforms, and watch the yard workers cutting cars and connecting them. These European trains have bumpers to keep cars (and locomotives) separated so that a yard worker can stand between a car and an oncoming locomotive without being crushed.
One platform is dedicated to trains to/from France, with immigration and customs at the station level.
It isn't unusual to see a train with six to eight cars, a locomotive in the middle, and then another six to eight cars. Evidently two train consists were joined at some point in the journey.
So if you're a train buff, and if you're coming to Geneva, consider staying at the Hotel Autieul.