Re: Steamification (UN-Diseaselizing) ...

With a diesel you still have to manage your train; I have witnessed the results of poor train handling with diesel locomotives. But with steam you have to manage your train and your locomotive. I know that with early diesels you had to watch the amps, temps, oil pressure etc, but really about all you had to do was watch. (I'm not talking train handling now.) Some modern steam locomotives had gauges and indicators to tell you how you were doing but most did not. The only way you could tell was by sound and feel, and your butt was as important as your eyes and ears. A steam locomotive, a thing of beauty and romance from trackside, becomes a hot, smelly, cantankerous beast when you are in the cab trying to make it behave. The romance of railroading comes from the satisfaction of a job well done, at least when things go right. There is little romance in the frustration when they don't. This is not to say that I don't love it. But sometimes I climb up into the all weather cab of our, still uncompleted, 50 ton GE and think how nice it would be to just move a couple of levers and go.