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HerenIstarion, although those passages don't explicitly speak of trains or steam-driven vehicles in general, the undoubted mention of Numenorian airplanes hit me like a brick when I first read it. It one of JRRT's ideas that I find most confounding in all his works, for, if they had gotten that far, how could they have not used it to greater effect or lose the knowledge later? One can imagine these flying ship to have been powered by fell magic of Sauron that was later taken away or the particular genius of Men who died in the Fall. Either way would round up the 'great civilization now perished' nicely, but oh, so little is actually said on the matter!
As far as locomotives, however, I think we are finally left with a gap. There were no mechanical trains in M-e of the Third Age, or there would have had to be a much greater foothold for an industrial revolution of Men, who surely would not do such things in a small enough way to only be mentioned by Hobbits in passing.
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