Does anyone know of any steam engines slated to run in the next year…? Id love to see one again. I ran into one in chicago a few years back on accident it was quite a beautiful experience!
You’ll probably have to narrow it down a little as to what you’re looking for. There are plenty of tourist operations around that run steam. As well, I’m sure both CPR 2816 and UP 844 will be jaunting around as usual to mention the Class 1 steam programs.
up 844 is the one i ran into a few years back. How do you go about getting on an excursion powered by that engine? Im from the chicago land area and ive seen the illinois railway museum and one in wisconsin a long time ago, but i love seeing one on a real line. Whats class 1?
i was just looking online about the 2816. I live three houses from the ex soo now cp or wisconsin central line. The 2816 passed my house sept. 17th and i did not even know about it! nor ever saw it! thats extremely upsetting being three houses away from it 
How would i find out if its to run around here again or its current location?
http://www.upsteam.com/ should give you all the details of UP steam moves. The CPR trips are a little harder to pin down. Other than the highly publicized public excursions (like the double header with 261), 2816’s moves usually aren’t published in a central location. We usually only hear about charters and other runs through the grapevine. The CPR group on Yahoo is a good source of info on that. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/C-P-R/
Other than that, peruse the trains forums regularly and see what gets posted. Also, you may want to see if there is a group with a locomotive in your area that runs excursions. They would love to sell you a seat on their next trip! Or better yet, if you have weekends that you can burn, they might even need help around the shop and whatnot. Whats better than riding a steam train? Working on one!
Happy Steaming!