Trivia: This is, the way I see it, a VERY serious mistake by the filming crew of the movie. The Alaska Railroad, where the shooting of the movie took place, wanted all their logos and paint schemes of all the trains in the movie to be camouflaged. But yet, on the first shot of the locomotive of Eastbound 12 (yes, that is the shot of it before it mysteriously changes from ONE GP40 to TWO ALCo MRS's), you can see the blue and yellow paint scheme of the Alaska Railroad. On the DVD you might even be able to see the printed ALASKA on the side of the loco.
Trivia: In the original script Manny was supposed to be a convicted killer but writer Edward Bunker changed it to a safe-cracker because he didn't feel the other prisoners would respect a killer.
Trivia: In the film Eric Robert says jokingly to Sara "Why are we here? I'll tell you why...We're on our way to Las Vegas to see our good friend Wayne Newton." In Best of the Best 2 (1993) Eric Roberts arrives at Las Vegas at the end to stop a fight, which is being hosted by Wayne newton.
Chosen answer: Most likely from the speed at which the train was going, a train is like driving any large vehicle. You have to maintain a certain pace, to stop at an instant, for the unexpected.