Engineer Joe McNew extracts as much speed as he can from his 50-year-old Mollie #382 in an effort to keep the Virginia Creeper on schedule. It's a freezing cold February afternoon and he and fireman D.S. Nichols have their deckless cab buttoned up as tightly as possible. At the back of the consist, the few folks riding in the coach and combine are all clustered around the coal stoves, for there's no steam heat on this run. It may be 1956, but on board Train 201, the technology hasn't budged since about 1910.
