What are we going to do, bring back coal fired stern wheelers on the rivers and great lakes and coal fired locomotives on the rails? (I think the later would be kind of cool. Dirty, but cool. :) I'm old enough to remember the last of the heavy oil fired steam locomotives. Much more impressive than the diseil electrics of today. I lived about 1/4 block from the Burlington main line. Those old engines really made the house shake. Very comforting in it's own way. I miss 'em, but I also miss the trains in general. When we moved from that little house, we moved to one where the Rock Island main line was where other peoples' alleys were, but by them I think the steamers were gone. Now the Rock Island Line is gone too, and now it's route is a concrete biking and walking trail that runs behind my mother's house.
Rock Island Line - are you talking trains?
I’ll bet it’s the one that ran behind my grandparents house in Iowa.