So, back when I wrote the short story Old Times for the CanFurence conbook on the steampunk/train theme (which ended up not being in the conbook, because, well, 2020) I added the idea of my superhero skunk Sara (a.k.a. Skunkworks) having a great-great-grandmother who was also a bit of a 'mad scientist' type, and had been a train robber back in the Wild West days. La Mofeta de Hierro, Scourge of the Southwest. (La Mofeta de Hierro being Spanish for 'the Iron Skunk'. Which, honestly, sounds like a good name for some of the old locomotives given how much smoke they spewed out anyway.)

I thought of her again when  S00t was doing in-steam commissions, in part because S00t's shading style definitely looked like it would work for the muted colours of an 'old-time photograph' feel. So here we are!

While definitely a thief, La Mofeta here was more a 'Robin Hood' type, stealing from the big railway barons and spreading the wealth to those displaced. And keeping much of it for herself, of course. Getting the equipment to build a custom locomotive and a hideout wasn't cheap...

(While this was getting drawn, I suddenly remembered a film I'd seen called 'The Grey Fox', which was also about a train robber, based on the real story of Bill Miner. According to my grandmother, who'd grown up in the area Bill Miner did his thefts in, most of the area knew who he was, but he had enough of his own Robin Hood reputation that nobody turned him in. She claimed that her father had even sold Miner and his men some of the stockings that they used to hide their faces, and complained that the movie showing them in bandanas was taking liberties with the actual history.)

Artist's posting at https://www.furaffinity.net/view/39547887/ so go fave and say 'hi' there!