You don't have to go to these remote places to feel the vintage-discomfort of old, smelly and unpunctual trains! Just visit Italy, where even diesel trains and optional time-tables will make your journey through art exceptional!
I still remember those 2 (some times 4) daily train trips from Modena to Bologna to get to the university (yes, this is in a developed and rich region of Italy) where you had to sit in the floor, where windows didn't work and there was no air-conditioning...
It amuses me to no end how Americans seem to equate lack of air conditioning, something the human race has survived perfectly well without for tens of thousands of years, to unsanitary conditions in a third-world country or some sort of dystopian post-apocalyptic nightmare.
When you are forced to sit in the floor because the train is packed and there is no room to even walk inside, when temperatures are beyond 35'C, air conditioning is not a western commodity (btw, I am not from US) but a necessity.
I still remember those 2 (some times 4) daily train trips from Modena to Bologna to get to the university (yes, this is in a developed and rich region of Italy) where you had to sit in the floor, where windows didn't work and there was no air-conditioning...