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Steam is not alive? Well technically that may be so, but if you want to understand how it can seem alive I recommend that you watch the 1965 Burt Lancaster movie, The Train. This movie stars Burt Lancaster as a French locomotive engineer during WWII and a whole fleet of SNCF steamers. Toward the end of the movie there is a scene where an old Ten Wheeler is gingerly pushing a flatcar loaded with civilian hostages, sort of as a human shield, when the track is blown up and the flatcar and engine run off the track onto the ties. In retaliation the *** machinegun the whole group of hostages and leave. Burt Lancaster approaches the derailed engine which is sitting quietly hissing as air is leaking somewhere. The air compressor keeps kickin in and out in a soft rythm like a heartbeat. There is no music, no sound but the silent screaming of the dead hostages and the beat of the compressor, sssss-thump...thump, sssss- thump...thump like the beating of the heart of a wounded beast that can no longer fight and quietly awaits the predators to bring on its fate. That may not be life, but it sure is a good imitation of it. It is always January 21, 1943, my date of birth, on The Mountain Route. I am 61 years old. I was a rail nut even as a child. And I was always fascinated by steam engines and I saw a bunch of them. I only wish I had been more mature so I could have more clearly understood what I was seeing. I had some experience with steam in Europe and Mexico in my later teens and really revelled in it. Big boy, you're just a young pup next to ol' Odd-d, but I'll be glad to take you under my wing and teach you about steam. After all, I've seen as many diesels as you have, but I've also seen the steam. There is no comparison. There is more to the steam era than engines. In those days railroading was a way of life, now speaking as an exrailroader I can say it is just a job and the only thing that matters is the bottom line. There is no flair, no service.......no life, at least not like there was. Odd-d
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