In early December of 2018, I ventured up to Owosso MI with a good friend to film the annual “Santa Train” put on by the Owosso Steam Institute. My reason for going? To see Pere Marquette 1225 operating for the first time. Built by Lima Locomotive Works in the early 1940’s, this “berkshire” class engine served for only ten years before it was retired for more efficient modes of power. It was most famously used as both a visual and audio model for the train used in, “The Polar Express”, and, with only a few active steam locomtives remaining in service across america, getting to see it run, even for a short, 20 mile round trip was a fantastic experience to say the least.
Though I had both seen and ridden steam powered trains on both narrow gauge and “grand scale” railroads (the type of train that you might find circling around a zoo or park) this was only the second time in my life that I had seen an operational standard gauge steam locomotive. Even for a relatively short round trip, (20 miles in total), hearing the low murmur of the whistle and seeing the looming frame of this fourteen wheeled beast slink across the Michigan countryside was something that more modern forms of motive power simply cannot duplicate!
KGN Photographic 