You certainly paint a vivid picture with your writing! You have seen many things I will only read about and see on TV. I always thought it was amazing that my grandad flew over Germany, looking down on the bombed out cities, and saw it in color!! Since all the images I've seen have been in black and white.
Trains were a popular sight and sound where I live, in the coalfields of the Appalachian Mountains. Unfortuneatly, lots of them are gone. The tracks were removed from my town a decade ago, they quit using them in the late 1980's. I am a member of a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society and we are working to preserve a local depot to use as a museum. The elder folks of our membership often speak about the whistle of the trains and what they meant to our community.
Take care of yourself, sir.
Brooke