I think they're cool too. As a kid my parents and I rode from Portland Ore. to Omaha Nebraska on one. My ex's uncle was an engineer on a small wood mill line and we got to ride in the engine with him whenever we wanted, was cool to get Blazed and ride the "Blue Goose" (train lines name)
trains are a product of the victorian age, the industrial revolution the british empire went through in the 19th and early 20th centuries. theres no better monument to such an important era in the civilized world, the complexity of the machines men could make without the existence of electronic tools and information is astounding. Sadly we are forgetting such important creations we have made, trains being one of them, one of the first modes of mass transportation, one of the first times we did the unthinkable, we shrunk the world. Today it feels like we are going backwards, it takes longer today to fly from new York to London than it did 10 years ago, Concorde itself is a testament to the ingenuity we has humans have We cant move forward without looking at the past, trains are sadly going the way of the Dodo Have you ever seen the schematics for a 1900's era train? its mind boggling the things we can create with a few pieces of paper, our mind, and the physical tools at our disposal. you are not old fashioned, you appreciate the history of the evolution of man-kind, its a rare passion found these days.