That's how I like to remember the railways, smoke, steam, soot, and living machines!
45519 "Lady Godiva", one of the former LMS Railway's 'Baby Scot' or 'Patriot' class locomotives on the left, and one of the first express passenger train diesels on the right.
You could not have dreamed at the time of this painting that within a few decades fast, clean, air-conditioned trains would whisk the miles away at double or triple the speeds of the old steamers.
You wouldn't have guessed how much the fares have gone up, either!