The Swiss SBB also has a real estate division, which makes them a lot of money actually (I think a lot of that comes from leases from shops in train stations).

They also have an energy company which runs some hydroelectric power stations.

Transport for London (TfL) have a fledgling property development arm called Places for London which aims to try and replicate some of the successes of Japanese railway companies. They propose the mooted Bakerloo line extension is partially subsidised by over-station developments.

We had just that in the UK relatively recently! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-landhttps://en.wikipedia...

That's actually pretty common.

Deutsche Bahn does everything from real estate to infrastructure to truck companies (no longer in Europe, though, they had to sell that off) to car sharing to energy production to IT development to trading lumber, workforce rental and startup venture capital. The list changes every few days, so some they may no longer do, others they will now do. It's a megacorp.

Many of these have grown out of the original business model.

Because most western train companies are nationalized or co owned by the state. They don't even have to turn a profit.