Steam locomotives - living, breathing

The simplicity of the steam locomotive is important, and the artistic beauty and esthetic of steam can't be easily dismissed. To those of us who simply love steam, however, there is nothing you can say that will convince me that steam locomotives don't live and breathe.

If you have never had the chance to stand beside a steam locomotive with a fire in its firebox, then you should get thee to Youtube and watch a few videos taken as a steam locomotive pulls into a station or just stands still ready for a day's work. First and foremost, a steam loco has body heat. Even if the fire has been quenched, the heat of the boiler remains for hours or days after. Just like a living animal, it's hard to kill and even harder to resurrect if you do.

When standing still, the appliances that help make it work also give the impression that it breathes. Air compressors inhale and exhale steam, pumps plunge and whirr, and turbogenerators whine. Somewhere in all that whispering noise is a voice saying, "I am alive."

When moving and working, the steam loco has to breathe harder. It needs more air to fuel the fires that make it move, just like a human runner in a marathon. It has wheels, but it also has legs, the rods and cranks that run in rhythm with its speed. You can watch those legs and see them change, just a little, when the locomotive has to work harder.

Yes, it whispers at rest, but it has a voice, too. When its running at speed it yells out with a recognizable voice that says, "I'm coming. Get out of the way! Stand back and watch me run!" As it pulls into a station, slowing now, it says, "Ding, ding. Here I am. Open the door and come ride with me!" Then it beckons you in and, with a hearty All Aboard from the person who keeps it, it carries you on its steel back to places far and wide. It did, anyway, in the steam era.

But there are still living, breathing steam engines around. And they'll carry you to interesting places with fascinating stories.

They are alive!