I've always loved big machines, and since I grew up in the 70's it was always class 37, 47 & 55 which did it for me. I always fancied driving trains, but didn't get round to it until 20 years after leaving school.
Speaking of trains not being cool anymore. I was in a shop recently and had to fill in a form. When the young female shop assistant heard that I was a train driver she exclaimed loudly "Train driver - that's really cool". Suspecting that she might be extracting the weewee I asked her for her reasons. She said that everyone nowadays seemed to be in IT or PR, and it was nice to see someone doing a 'real job' .......as far as I could tell she was serious.