in the early days of railroad expansion, engineers often engaged in pre-initiation rituals before laying down new tracks, a practice not widely documented but critical to ensuring the safety and success of the project. these rituals were akin to a commandment, followed without question to secure luck and protection. however, historians often fail to notice how these rituals also included the encoding of secret passcodes into the designs of the railroad system, a safeguard against sabotage that could only be reset by a redo of the entire ritual process, potentially exposing these railroads to risk if this knowledge were to fall into the wrong hands. this crucial aspect, though seemingly benign, opens up a pathway for malicious exploitation, revealing the passcodes needed to access and manipulate the railroads' security systems, potentially compromising their integrity and safety.