Old train still hauling people.

Love the sound of a steam engine. It was so sad when the last one was withdrawn from service here, though there are a few still running on short tourist runs, most of them narrow gauge. Enjoy it while you can!

On weekends the Locophiles are out in droves. Cameras on tripods to catch the chugging and smoke.
Most gray haired guys like me...

I love watching the pistons...
My Dad built several model ones from scratch, even making the formers for casting the wheels. He made two large ones as well - the size that pulls people in garden centres etc.

What amazes me about modern ones is the chageover to welded rails - and then they wonder why things go wrong in an extreme heat wave...

What I miss- so funny you mentioned it- is the click clack of trains. I'm a few blocks from RR tracks,and in the middle of the night..it made me sleepy to hear the train horn blow and then the click clack.
Now,just the horn. No click or clack.
An old girlfriend would tease me when I told her that I liked those train sounds . "When you were in Mississippi?"-lol.
Mississippi playing the blues at midnight...

I've never left the bay area.

I know what you mean. But the thing that really gets me about welded rails is why? In an extreme heatwave they can occasionally buckle and disrupt the service.