Music in video

I generally prefer live audio over music in contemporary material, but only if there IS LIVE audio. In Roger's shot there is no live train audio for the first part. I recently used some music on some really long distant scenes(1)at Los Pinos of 463 trundling downgrade near the highway,
and (2) a downgrade shot of 463 at Tanglefoot, also way off, but my 20x
lens shows it really well. When the train got closer we blended to live sound of the train clattering by.
On vintage material there is generally no train sound with old films.
Some choose to dub fake sounds in, which is fine, except that in many cases its not correct and then you are changing the historical interpretation. Imagine some young guy seeing a shot of 4449, and it has a hooter whistle on the film of the Freedom Train. He thinks its the way it was. We tend to narrate a lot on the vintage shows, and yes we have tons of background music, which by the way costs a lot to license for use.
I think one of the keys here is the type of music used for trains. Hollywood and the media tend to want to use banjo music or some other kind of "Boxcar Willy" music, which I do not care for. I believe a more sophisticated sound is warranted to bring out the majesty of the steam locomotive, not just any old tunes. That said sometimes its hard to come up with appropriate music, unless you have someone like John Williams at your disposal.
One can always turn down the audio where the music is not liked. Like videos and films themselves everything is subjective.
Greg