Jim Fox can tell you why railroad engines have "cow catchers": He once was on a train when it plowed into some cows. Jim and his wife, Patty, spend their retirement days in Fargo, near Perham, Minn., ...

At 5 p.m., it finally began. Like boxers climbing into the ring, the two steam engines (each pulling a few boxcars filled with railroad ties) met at the collision site and touched cow-catchers.