This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your stories. Send them to Our American Stories.com. They're some of our favorites.

Up next, a story from the Atlanta History Center,

a great museum where you can see exhibits like the massive cyclorama painting

and a locomotive with a truly unique story, the Texas.

Built four years before Lincoln was elected,

the locomotive is best known today as the principal

pursuit engine and the great locomotive chase, which occurred after Union spies stole her running

mate, the general.

But the story goes far deeper than that.

Here's Jackson McQuig, Vice President of Properties at the Atlanta History Center with the story.

I want to say I was born into it, but I have been a fan of railroads and interested in railroads pretty much all my life.

That's something that I shared with my dad.

And growing up in Tampa, Florida with deep roots in Atlanta,

Atlanta's history was always of interest to me.

And I think that, you know, by the age of like 14,

I was volunteering at the Florida Railroad Museum,

scraping paint and doing all the things that older people didn't want to do, you know.

And I've just always been fascinated by trains.

I mean, it is just absolutely one of the most fascinating technologies.

And I think I'm interested in it because, you know, travel is such a fun fun thing and there's no better way to go

than traveling by train you can visit with friends and have a drink have a meal

look out the window you can get on a sleeping car and see the world go by overnight

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