Boy, does THIS bring back memories. Grandpa was a locomotive machinist for the Grand Trunk Western and Canadian National. Dad did MOW work for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St Paul & Pacific - better known as the Milwaukee Road - during the Great Depression. I was a yard clerk, then a train order operator for Chessie System. Chessie's engine 614 came through an interlocker I was operating one Saturday morning and we wyed the engine (sort of like a bootleg turn for a steam engine). It was coal fired, that's where I learned never to stand next to one of these things when they start from a dead stop, the fireman really shoots the coal into the firebox and the cinders fly out of that stack up front to settle all over you if you're too close. Well do I remember the smells of hot metal, hot oil, and steam from that day. There definitely is an atmosphere to these things. They're like an old propliner - all the mechanical action is on the outside where you can see it; reminders of a bygone era when things, and people, were different.
BTW re: chasing the train - 614 took an excursion train across the state to Grand Rapids one day. The district CSX railroad cops followed the train all the way to Lansing, end of their jurisdiction. On long straight stretches of track that engine and train left the coppers in its dust. The engineer just couldn't resist opening it up.
