Personal Narrative Essay: The Story Of Steam Engines

This is a story about trains, and especially about steam locomotives. My brief Wikipedia research tells me that steam engines began to be phased out in the early 1900’s; however, they were still in commercial use into the early sixties. That said, I don’t think America ever got over its romance with the age of steam.
For nearly thirty years, I worked in an office in downtown Roseville, California. Right across the street, just beyond a cyclone fence, was the Southern Pacific rail yard, one of the major switching centers on the West Coast. All day long, the diesel engines would hum around the yard, banging freight cars together, assembling trains that would head out to the world. Nobody paid much attention.
Ah, but when a steam locomotive came through town, that was another story.
As much as an hour beforehand, you would see people lining up along Atlantic Street, cameras slung around their

I was born in 1942 and grew up in a little two-bedroom house on Russell Street in Vallejo, California, just a block away from Steffan Manor School. It was a great neighborhood, full of fine families and lots of kids. My first best friend was Richard “Richie” Gunderson who lived just up the hill on Russell. For a long time it seemed that we were inseparable. We’d see each other almost every day and I don’t remember ever being bored.
Cowboys and Indians was always a good pastime. We’d dress up in the full-on outfits—hats, vests, chaps, cap guns and holsters. We were great fans of Roy Rogers and never missed his radio show featuring Dale Evans, Gabby Hayes, and that western chorus The Sons of the Pioneers. When we played, there was a lively competition to see which one of us would be Roy Rogers. That is until I saw a movie where the main character was a guy named Jim Banister. Jim could take on ten guys at a time, tie ‘em all up and haul ‘em away to the pokey. Wow! After that, Richie could be Roy anytime he wanted. I was Jim