Nomad of Mid-America
Is This the End?
Sandaoling, steam's last great holdout. Since its inception in 1804, the steam locomotive has been one of the world's most important inventions, shrinking geographical barriers and moving the world's goods as the global economy bloomed into an interconnected and highly-advanced technological marvel. Scenes like this, of a towering vaporized cloud drawing down to a determined JS 2-8-2 leading its bounty out of the mine pit, have become a staple of what makes steam locomotion, and Sandaoling, such a wonder. But the sunset overhead represents the all-too-near reality that faces Sandaoling, perhaps symbolic not only of the end of the day, but also the end of a lifetime, the end of an era. For by the close of 2020, it will all be over. Fireboxes will go cold and the steel rails threading atop the rocky soil will rust, hundreds will have to seek a new line of work, and the Gobi Desert will reclaim what is left of it all as China sheds its bituminous-fueled past for a greener, modern tomorrow. And steam locomotion, as a lifeblood, as a tradition, as a relevant means of transportation--barely clinging to life along the pit walls of Sandaoling--will come to a close 216 years after it all began. It was quite a run.
Is This the End?
Sandaoling, steam's last great holdout. Since its inception in 1804, the steam locomotive has been one of the world's most important inventions, shrinking geographical barriers and moving the world's goods as the global economy bloomed into an interconnected and highly-advanced technological marvel. Scenes like this, of a towering vaporized cloud drawing down to a determined JS 2-8-2 leading its bounty out of the mine pit, have become a staple of what makes steam locomotion, and Sandaoling, such a wonder. But the sunset overhead represents the all-too-near reality that faces Sandaoling, perhaps symbolic not only of the end of the day, but also the end of a lifetime, the end of an era. For by the close of 2020, it will all be over. Fireboxes will go cold and the steel rails threading atop the rocky soil will rust, hundreds will have to seek a new line of work, and the Gobi Desert will reclaim what is left of it all as China sheds its bituminous-fueled past for a greener, modern tomorrow. And steam locomotion, as a lifeblood, as a tradition, as a relevant means of transportation--barely clinging to life along the pit walls of Sandaoling--will come to a close 216 years after it all began. It was quite a run.