Old Maude, Preface - Virtual Railroader

America's first high-speed electric locomotive
Old Maude:^
Parts: Preface | First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth | Notes
NOW YOU KNOW
It's been forty years now since this boy watched the changing of
locomotives at Harmon and posed unspoken questions about the
nature of electrics. As I sit here recalling those moments, I can
hear the words of Holmes's rhyme on the evening breeze:
Often you've looked on a rushing train,
But just what moved it was not so plain.
It couldn't be those wires above,
For they could neither pull nor shove;
Where was the motor that made it go
You couldn't guess, but now you know.[28]
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28. Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Complete Poetical Works. Ed. Horace E. Scudder.
Boston: Houghton, 1895; 301.
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