Louise Overhiser, the block operator at the Pennsylvania’s Watkins Glen, New York, station hands orders up to the engineer of a big 386,000–pound I–1–class 2–10–0 no. 4512 as it thunders past her with a string of empty hopper cars. This train is returning to Appalachian coal country from the loading docks at Sodus Point on Lake Ontario east of Rochester, New York. The crew of an Elmira Branch local freight wait for the passing train to clear so they can come out of a sidetrack and continue northward.