The steam locomotive was a wondrous sight,
Black and powerful at the deport station,
Hissing, puffing, bell and whistle delight,
Full of travel for land-crossing sensation.
Chugging across the earth’s great plane,
With luxury coach and dining cars,
Now quietly paused in museum’s reign,
A marvel notched in traveling stars.
Gone, too, the pack horse and canal barge,
Add the great steam locomotive past,
Vast horizons for the movement’s charge,
With miles of steel and steam so vast.
Now a gleaming museum wonder,
Stirring dreams of travels past,
Where rails echoed the sound of thunder,
And, distances covered the land at last.
Francis Conlon is a retired and recovering teacher. For the past 20 years, he has worked as a seasonal river ranger and boat inspector at Yampa River State Park in northwest Colorado. He has published in the local Valley Voice and in Westward Quarterly. He currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.