Sssssteam Engine!

They sound different.  It's not the clackedy-clack of the wheels.  It's the puffa puffa puffa. I'd forgotten it.

First, I live near train tracks going to Asheville (and beyond) from the eastern part of the state. But I can't see trains through the buildings and trees.  Usually there are a half dozen or maybe more trains going through Black Mountain carrying usually coal.

So I'm reading as I'm wont to do on Sunday afternoons, and hear a different kind of whistle.  Two longs, a short and a long as is normal... But the long just keeps on going and it sounds kind of whispery. And then a few hours later, it returns, and this time I hear the wonderful puffa puffa puffa.

I'd seen on the web by now that there was a 611 going down the tracks pulling some lucky passengers.  But I hadn't seen any pictures of it in action.

Later someone did post a still photo.

The 611 steam engine coming out of a tunnel near Black Mountain, NC