Excellent post thanks WM.

I imagine you talk just like Mr Eddy and say things to Mrs WM like 'my dear, on this day I find it necessary to go to the thrift shop as I require some high waisted pants for my next assignment from the organisation'.

Yeah, I love trains and so did my dad. I've still got boxes of his HO gauge model US rolling stock in my loft. Maybe one day I'll get room to do something with it.

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WOW!!  That is exciting news.  Mainline steam excursions in the U.S. have pretty much ceased at this point.  You can still find small railway museums running short line local steam, but there's just nothing like seeing the old iron horses out running on a main line.  It's just so expensive to keep these trains in running condition.  When I was a child, the old Norfolk and Western J Class number 611 would run excursions on the main line through the small Tennessee town my grandmother lived in.  I can remember the unparalleled excitement that would ensue when, on some lazy, boring Saturday afternoon sitting around the house, I'd hear the lonesome call of the 611's whistle echoing up the valley.  My dad would already be getting the car keys as I'd bolt out the door.  We'd rush downtown to the old train depot and get right up next to the tracks as this thing would rush by, engineer smiling and waving like he was the luckiest guy in the world.  And in my mind, he was.  Such a handsome locomotive.  A very British looking loco.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mECDib9ENtk

Apparently, it's now being restored as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEEoI6Ffl7Q

Guy Clark - Texas 1947: http://youtu.be/zjyihaxPsAo

^
Amazing! Powerful! Majestic!

Is that me and Woof?


Look how realistic these models are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te4XFR1tkjA

Didn't America trade it's glorious railway infrastructure in for the automobile?

Here's some train tracks for 'ya:

http://www.jazz.com/dozens/the-dozens-twelve-train-tracks