For several American generations, steam trains were a common, everyday experience. I’m barely old enough to remember them; the transition to diesels occurred during my early childhood, and they were gone before I left grade school. A few “legacy” steamers still run as excursion trains today (for information about the locomotive in the video below, go here). But while the Steam Age is surrounded by nostalgia and romance, the fact is steam locomotives were heavy polluters, hard on the trackage (from the reciprocal motion of the drive wheels), labor intensive, and required continuous maintenance. Converting to diesels saved the railroads from bankruptcy when the interstate highways were built and they had to compete with trucks for freight traffic.