Many railroads kept older locomotives around even though they bought newer, bigger ones. The smaller ones might be kept for branchline work, or switching in yards, or as backup to the newer engines due to maintenance or simply increased traffic for holidays. This was especially true during World War II, when the government would not allow the railroads to acquire more engines. As long as your engines work, I would be glad to run them.
BTW, what sort of disaster caused all those people to be lying near the tracks?