But some people might want the observe the sights and not have a lot of noise around them, right? Not really sure it's fair to pollute a public space with your music when not everyone might like it, or have the confidence to say when they don't like it. Not very nice to say to people you're going to subject them to music and if they don't like it their only option is to leave. Doesn't really sound right does it?

Maybe, but having to view the scenery from your own seat instead of from the observation car is pretty far removed from “hell.”

Seems a bit selfish that you leave people the only option of moving to avoid noise.

Again, “a bit selfish” and “hell” are worlds apart. I was just addressing the latter.

The train was stopped, so if someone left the viewing car they weren't missing anything.

A bit more of the story. Where we were stopped was the the side of a mountain. On the uphill side was a similarly-stopped freight train, with an oil tanker car right next to us. Below us was a raging, flooded, river (on account of the same storms that washed out the track). And up above was a cliff, with a boulder on top that seemed maybe a little precarious.

So we were sitting there wondering if the same storm that eroded the tracks had maybe eroded the cliff around that boulder, allowing it to tumble down through the oil tanker to send us plunging into the flood waters below.

Brooding over that was less fun than the distraction of the sing-along.

Most of the ride the observation car was quiet. The sing-along was a welcome diversion from the anxiety and ennui of sitting for hours waiting to see if the train would be allowed to proceed.