Sensing the Transcontinental Railroad Clang, clang, whooo whooo, hiss, hiss, chug chug chug, all words found ringing through the award winning historical picturebook by Brian Floca, appropriately titled “Locomotive”. The story is an explanation of the operations of the first locomotive on the transcontinental railroad. The words convey the temporal information about all of the workings of a locomotive, describing in detail the decisions and actions made to run the train, and allow it to complete its journey from Omaha to the Pacific Ocean. But in the pictures you can see the story of a family trying to reunite, a mother and her children leaving everything the ever owned to reach a new home in San Francisco, and to find their father
