The Hunt for the Last Steam Train

Steam-power isn’t as outdated as you might infer from its near extinction in the developed world. Skow remembers his father taking him to watch the big steam-powered freight trains run through the junction at Pasadena, California, in the 1950s. Steam wasn’t systematically phased out in the U.S. until the 1960s. Today, there is still one steam locomotive operating on a Class I railroad in the U.S., the Union Pacific 844.

Read more. [Images: David Longman]

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8. unrevolutionize said: There’s a crew of older fellas who have a classic train restoration union in northern ca and have restored quite a few steam trains and run them along the coast. They have at least 3. It’s no hunt!
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