Love them. Can’t beat a trip on one. My wife wants to have trip on one of them so looking at summer time.
The last steam train that I recall seeing was CFL 5519 in Luxembourg several years ago. My apartment was close to the central station and I heard the train whistle blowing whilst I was making my coffee on a Sunday morning. I dropped the coffee and legged it down to the station as fast as I could move, there was no rush, it stayed there for some while before departing. It was a wonderful experience.
The last steam train I consciously remember seeing and being on was in the mid 1960s, although I am sure I will have seen a couple since then I just don't remember as clearly.
i was a volunteer at the isle of wight steam railway for years--until my health said otherwise. now i'm happy and content with a fair sized n gauge model railway i'm building.
I'm surrounded by steam railways here in mid-Wales...the Vale of Rheidol in Aberystwyth, the Gwili Railiway near Carmarthen, Tal-y-llyn in Twywn and even the little Corris railway near Machynlleth.
They run several different styles of steam train on the Llangollen line each year, almost like a classic steam train meet-up. Loads of steam train geeks attend.
I love the old steamers too... and had many a ride on them as a youngster. My home town being York...home also to the National Railway Museum, I've been a bit spoilt for choice where locomotives and scenic railways are concerned. Engines such as the Flying Scotsman, regularly steaming through our station. My uncle was a chef on board that train, when in its heyday. One of the first treats my first wife had , after arriving in the UK, was an excursion on the famous (Railway Children movie ?) Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. She loved it. We also have the North York Moors Railway, of course, plus one or two others.