In the same episode, After Jamie kills his father and goes to dump the body, Beth is already there waiting and takes a photo of Jamie. So now she has blackmail material to keep Jamie under their control, right? Not so fast. Beth used her personal iPhone—that sends metrics to Apple and the cell provider—and unless she takes the precaution of stripping the EXIF data from the image, it'll show that her phone was used to take the photo. Second, she presumably drove out there in her own car, a brand-new and top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG coupe. A car that has its own internal GPS and cellular modem that sends data back to the manufacturer. So, if she releases the image and Jamie is arrested, he could get revenge by telling them that Beth knew and blackmailed him. That makes her an accessory to murder after the fact. If the authorities can prove that her phone and car were in the same area, she's screwed. And if they crossed state lines, then the FBI gets involved.
In regard to "The Train Station" itself. When it was first put in use over a century ago, yes, as Lloyd points out it's an ideal place due to its remoteness and lack of people. Today not so much thanks to public roads, smart phones, social media and remote-operated camera drones. Even though it's still in the middle of nowhere with a non-existent law enforcement presence, it's still located along a well-maintained public highway that's important enough to have its own "Welcome to Wyoming" sign and is under County, State and Federal legal jurisdiction. Meaning all it takes is time and for someone to pull over at just the right spot or go running around the ravine with a drone and the place is exposed.
Season 5 initiates a plotline where John is forced to move half the ranch's cattle south (to Texas) in an effort to protect it from a viral strain that causes cattle to deliver stillborn calves. He does so without checking with Beth first, who reels in shock when she realizes the land needed to house (and feed) said cattle will run the ranch $1.4 million per month — an amount that is completely unsustainable for the ranch, and requires a loan that will destroy the firm's finances, forcing her to Take a Third Option when she figures out how to solve their problems (by eventually selling the cattle to the Four Sixes Ranch, which will process and sell it at a very lucrative markup). Moreover, the decision to move half the herd south is made so suddenly that Beth, Abby and Carter are left reeling once they realize that this plan will require the people chosen to move with the herd (including Rip and Ryan) will need to stay away from the ranch for up to a year, which causes Ryan and Abby's relationship to fizzle out when she realizes he's more interested in cowboying (he considers the opportunity a dream job) over a future with her.
The first two haven't come up yet, so it's just speculation as to whether these real-world details will come into play. The third is just regrettable ramifications of a hard decision, not an example of the trope.
Removed from Did Not Think This Through:
The first two haven't come up yet, so it's just speculation as to whether these real-world details will come into play. The third is just regrettable ramifications of a hard decision, not an example of the trope.