Whatever your feelings are about debt for yourself, a great concept to recognize is that other people will indebt themselves enormously (and banks and the government and family members will assist those people in indebting themselves) for the purpose of buying a place to live.  

I briefly browsed the internet, but there is so much conflicting information...where is the best source (government agencies included) to look for the information?

They have my SSN on government documents.  

Since I really don't know much about the railroad industry, the first thing I would do is research what (if any) regulations exist regarding what can be transported via train through residential areas.Not only do you have the concern of kids playing on the tracks, but the potential of derailment with hazardous or flammable materials. 

You can run all the what ifs you like, you can have any opinion you like, but in reality, there are rules and regulations you'll be dealing with, they may not be logical to you or fit with your thinking but that becomes irrelevant in the reality of real estate.

They are a private company and are not restricted access or kept from doing an inspection from the government unless the house is under some sort of government claim such as eminent domain, crime scene investigation or condemned.

(in most markets, your market may be different).Because of the MANY new lending regulations it can be hard to imposable for a buyer to get a owner occupied loan to buy your homes from you when you eventual liquidate. meaning you are selling to cash buyers and investors only.

Rules & regulations of the HOA board- Some may not allow rentals or they have rules regarding rentals.  3.  

The regulators don't like it, examiners don't like it and neither do state and federal entities.

Purchases of new homes climbed 7.8 percent from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted 539,000 annualized pace in February, a seven-year high, according to the latest U.S. government report.