As many as 1,500 people gathered on Feb. 24, 1884, to view the first locomotive many of them had ever seen. The Oregon and California Railroad was under construction toward Ashland to the south when Engineer Dan McCarthy drove a passenger train to the temporary terminus at Phoenix, Ore. One old man who boarded the engine cab shouted, “Thank God, thank God, I have lived to see this day.” The crowd edged so close they got in the way of the train crews, so McCarthy gave a nod to his fireman, who