...I find these early locos, and early machinery in general, just fascinating.

I admit being more interested in studying the artefact to understand what any designer and builder was thinking, how problems in physics were solved by mechanics and how physics itself was used in ways we today don't consider.

Even things in everyday life, mundane things like how houses were built with transoms over the interior doors, double-sash windows, and awnings and how everyone knew how these things worked to cool the interior of the house without A/c, and how no-one understands it today. Yet, it's still viable (the physics hasn't changed) and can help reduce your energy bill if you take the time to figure it all out and vent a few interior doors. Simple things like that, so mainstream back then, often still useful today, but totally forgotten.

I did venturi vents in my car workshop when I first insulated the building and ran a single window A/c unit to cool it, learned from figuring out why the ice-houses of pre mechanical A/c days had vented cupolas and what they were for. You still had ice delivered in the heat of August back then, and that was why it was available in those days.

Its a bit humbling, but these people were smart as hell; we don't have a monopoly on intelligence certainly just because we have all this cool shit. I'm convinced we're the more ignorant for it; we've forgotten more than we've learnt.

I love looking at these things and learning what these people long gone have to teach us. Yeah, a lot of it is purely academic but a lot is really useful today, too.