Yes, there's something magical about steam engines.
Carson & Colorado #18* was sitting in the park just off of Hwy. 395 at Independence, California. I had driven past it hundreds of times as I drove up to the Sierras, to go skiing, fishing or biking in my stomping grounds. Every 5 years or so, another coat of paint was added. Then walls, of sorts, appeared around the loco, as well as a fund raising sign. Then it dissappeared.
3 to 4 years later it was steamed up. I was incredulous. Having no track to run it on, they hauled it up 395 to the Laws railroad museum, just out side of Bishop. They had a bit of track there, and they let it stretch it's legs, a bit. Back to Independence it went, to sit in it's metal shed.
Then a coal fired loco of the Durango & Silverton sparked a fire in Colorado. Despite how much cash the local tourist railroad contributed to the local economy, there was rumblings of shutting the railroad down. The railroad committed to converting some of the coal burners to oil burners, which don't spew the cinders that are associated with the coal burners.
C&C 18 was trucked to Colorado so the Durango & Silverton engineers could learn the ways of a oil burning locomotive. Spent the summer there, but it's back in Independence now.
Never thought it would run again, much less on the D&S.
Sorry for the OT. I'll probably head out to the desert, spend the night in Afton canyon, and watch Big Boy chug through the next day.
* The Carson & Colorado was purchased by the Southern Pacific, and #18 is lettered for that railroad.