As a young teen, I used to jump the freight that ran about a quarter mile from my house and ride it the ten miles to the beach at White Rock.  I never thought much about the risk, and I never knew anyone who got hurt.

Ironically, I would probably have killed my own kids if they had tried to duplicate my behavior.

When I was a kid we used to play football on the green space that ran beside the train track near our street.  We'd occassionally hop on and ride a block just to say that we did.  When I was in University I worked a summer on a railroad maintenance gang and was very adept at jumping on a ladder as a result of my experience from my younger years (it's actually not very hard).