Flashback to travel across China/Mongolia/Siberia
Thought I don't recall if any of it was steam powered
Sentimental or Not, a Steam-Powered Journey Is Ending - New York Times:
"They're just a little dirty, but there's not much harm in that."
From the workers to the passengers who ride this line, which cuts through vast open expanses of farmland, planted in corn, millet and sunflowers and framed by mountains and narrow roads lined with yellowing poplars, Mr. Gao was one of the few people to express any sentiment at all in the matter.
But international train buffs are already in mourning as they count down the days until the steam whistles are silenced and the old, strangely animate black locomotives with their huge crimson wheels are auctioned off for scrap metal.
'They seem almost like beasts, don't they?' asked Gary Hunter, a rail enthusiast from Tucson who has written about the Jitong line for train magazines and has visited China six times, mostly to experience what has become a rare and disappearing phenomenon. 'You stand close to one on the line, and it gives off heat. The compressors pant."
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