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The 1225 hustles a Lerro charter across Mid Michigan on a bitter cold January morning in 2019. As I watched this impressive machine thunder across frost covered farm fields I couldn't help but think that this was once a common, everyday occurrence.

A favorite song of our three daughters is called "Follow That Train", by Country singer Jessica Harp. For our middle daughter, Naomi, this was the result of doing just that, as she greets her favorite steam locomotive, restored Nickel Plate Road (NKP) 2-8-4 "Berkshire" No. 765, as it thunders south at Everett Road on the final day of the "Steam in the Valley" event on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad back in 2021. After first seeing the engine at an Open House event in 2015, when she was just over a year old, she has since become fascinated with the 765, even stating more than once that she wants to become an engineer and run 765! This event was the first time she ever got to see the engine run in-person in a mainline-like setting, and she was thrilled! So, who knows, maybe someday she'll be in the right hand seat, running 765 at an event like this.

On a cold night in Owosso, Michigan, Pere Marquette 1225 (aka the polar express) gets ready to depart the Steam Railroading Institute's Owosso shops for a Trip to Ashley, Michigan where the train would stop and head back with an LTEX F40PH leading the way back.