I love trains, and especially steam engines from the early 20th Century. It is these trains that hauled that 12,000-piece kit from the mill in Cairo, Illinois to prospective homeowners throughout America. Trains are magical and amazing and intriguing and a marvel of modern engineering.

Pictured below is the “A Class” Norfolk and Western 1218, as seen at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. That’s my 5’8″ hubby standing beside the behemoth. Number 1218 was, in its day, the most powerful steam locomotive in the world, with a tractive effort of 114,000 pounds-force . The N&W 1218 (an articulated train) was born in 1943 and retired from rail service in 1959.

To read about Portsmouth’s brand new train, click here.

Big Train and Not-so-big hubby.

To read about Portsmouth’s new steam engine, click here.