She's big, black and for those who tend to her every need, simply beautiful.Once a common workhorse for the NSW Government Railways, steam locomotive 5917 has been turning heads across the region over the past few weeks as the star of the Cockatoo Run from Sydney to Robertson via Wollongong.Along the route that takes in the steepest rail gradient in the state, people of all ages wait patiently to drink in the smoky din of her passing.Inside her antique passenger cars, hundreds more have given themselves over to the romance of the steam age, totally beguiled by this lady's fully restored charms.On Thursday, there was even a Murder on the Orient Express corporate day, where normally busy credit industry executives got into the mood dressed as gangsters and flappers.Up the front, on the bucking and vibrating plate of the locomotive's engine, it's a different story, where romance is replaced by reality and soot-coated co-drivers John Mackie and Paul Stapleton labour hard and long to keep 5917 on track and on time."The beautiful thing about a steam locomotive is that it is alive," said 3801 Limited chairman John Glastonbury, whose firm chartered the 5917 for the long-awaited return of steam to the Cockatoo Run."You can hear it, you can feel it and you can even taste it," he said.The American-built 5917 is the only locomotive of its class operating in Australia and was restored in Cowra over six years by the Lachlan Valley Railway.Its last Cockatoo Run for this year is tomorrow, when more than 400 people have booked for a small slice of yesteryear. The train will pass through Wollongong Railway Station about 11am.