I remember in the 40’s steam engines coming by at night and their plaintiff wails. Also remember ships fog horns at night on Lake Michigan. Haunting.
One of my early memories was in San Diego in 1945. I was standing up in the front seat of our car between my mom and grandma.
We had stopped at a grade crossing at the front of the line of cars and watched a steam engine roar through the crossing with its freight cars in tow. A marvelous, indelible memory.
My grandfather spent a career working for the Santa Fe railway so we got free train trips often. After the war, my father was a brakeman for a while at Santa Fe RR out of Belen, New Mexico.
A few years ago I took my son on a special steam engine passenger trip from Dallas to Austin and back. On the return leg, we upgraded to a private room. Loved it.
The engine was sounding its horn every half mile or so as befits a rolling monument. It went off just as it passed us. ‘Bout blew my ears out.