although a very nice piece.. it is also one filled with great sadness for many.. all that was brought from the death of steam.. was the end of reliable rail travel and the romanticism of the line :(

While the setting is sad, I do like the idea of pumping drivers...

Talk about an interesting diorama this would make, just have the fellow in 'Russian Iron' for coat color.
On a silly side note, I have the four albums that go with that book.

I knew about those record albums as a kid, but was forbidden to buy them after I borrowed a copy of one from a friend's father and played it once on my family's hi-fi. My dad told he couldn't stand the racket, and if he ever caught me playing anything like it again, he'd clobber me, and I wasn't playing it loud either. I bought Zeil's book sometime in 1964, and it's one of the very few books from my childhood that I've kept as an (so-called) adult. It is a sad book, and Zeil's plea for steam locomotives was eloquent but hopeless. A steam engine is a magnificent but expensive beast to maintain while a diesel engine is cheap to keep and operate. So, by 1963, steam was a rapidly fading memory on America's railroads, with passenger train service slowly dying, a victim of the interstates, cheap airfare, and public indifference. "And the sons of Pullman porters, and the sons of engineers, ride their fathers magic carpets made of steel..."

incredible sexy

I miss reliable rail travel, too. I take the train whenever time allows, which is seldom.

I take it he's doing freight training? 7@=Q

At least he's not doing boxcar reps.

This is awesome!!!

Working out naked in a junkyard.
Cause why not?