> > I apologise for being so dense. I wonder if this is it: I'm entering the caverns by taking the train to a western side track and heading northeast. When I get to where I think I should pick up the train, nothing. I don't hear any rumbling from the cart. I've also tried to re-enter the mines from where the stream from the red caverns lets out and no luck. Is this the path to the northeast right way to enter the mines?
> > Interestingly, when I return to the spot where I got off the train it's still there. Before getting to the western side track, there's a spot where you can try to jump up to the ledge to the east. It's too high to reach. (Do I need the crate from GOA???) Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
>

The mine cart's still there because, as described in the game's text, the west track dips down quickly and then comes to a dead end where several other mine carts are stacked up (like a stack of shopping carts in a parking lot outside a supermarket, if you know what I'm talking about). When you get off the mine cart there, it'll stay there because it's trapped at the lowest point of the tracks. It's only a dead end for the tracks -- another passage which you can traverse on foot leads off to the northeast and passes under the main north-south tracks (by which you entered the general area) to enter the sandstone caverns.

> (I don't know what's with the ledge to the east; I know there's a too-high ledge after you catch the cart at the end, but I can't remember that on the way to the caverns...)
>

The ledge that's too high to reach is just south of the last barrier. It is, in fact, the same ledge you have to crawl out on to crank open the barrier from the south. There's nothing you can do there once you've opened the barrier. I suppose there was no real design reason to prevent the player from getting up that way; it doesn't allow you to get to the end any quicker.