Fortunatly for me steam lasted a little longer in Canada. We used to walk up pretty regularily to the train tracks to watch them run a couple of times a week. The railroads were pretty busy then as well as compared to today. it was four individual rail lines where we went. That enabled a train about every fifteen minutes or so.

I am not quite sure what the almost universal attraction was with the steam engine for children but it did exist. I also remember the first diesel engine I saw after a few years. A general motors or electomotive yard switcher. . The interest in trains has never really abated over all these many years either.

Of course I go back so far I even remember the pavement rollers were steam powered. Steam power in normal service did not totally disappear either. There was an old steam powered crane that lifted boats at the boatyard that saw service into the late 1970s.