Will anybody be writing songs about it? From Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight train" to Curtis Mayfield's "People get ready" and Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans", there has been a long tradition of songs about trains. Big rumbling beasts and sleek streamliners carrying passengers from coast to coast. Trains as metaphors of freedom and redemption. The feel of big drive wheels pounding along the ground. Songs about getting the train number wrong. You get the picture.
Here in Portland we have the Southern Pacific 4449, a huge streamlined 4-8-4 steam engine. I've seen it a number of times and is impressive to say the least.
Big, loud, smokey and a whistle that can't be beat.
I know these steamers are totally outdated and take a tremendous amount of maintainance. They do take us back to a time when that whistle in the distance meant mystery, romance, escape and songs.
From Chicago to New Orleans on the Panama Limited.