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This article examines the enduring tendency to disregard medical warnings and environmental concerns about steam locomotive smoke, through the study of two anecdotes referring to historical episodes from the 1820–30s: the expression of concerns about the use of tunnels; and certain landowners’ apprehension of local nuisances. These anecdotes, invented by railway promoters and spread by French popularizers between the middle of the nineteenth century and the end of the interwar period, contributed to establishing the idea of an irrational attitude toward the appearance of the train in space and society. A study of the context of their production and use reveals that the purpose of these anecdotes was to glorify the railway engineers by exaggerating the difficulties encountered. As instruments of a moral judgment, they also supported the emergence of a pro-technology rhetoric that supported new inventions by framing them in a progressive paradigm. As these anecdotes entered into the most contemporary debates on technology, they contributed to the denial of certain hazards and nuisances, and then to their partial erasure from the collective memory. In the age of steam, the railway industry, like any other industrial activity, was the source of local conflicts and sometimes serious incidents prompting a response from the authorities: railway tunnels were long considered an unhealthy or even dangerous environment, especially for those working in them; while the smoke emitted by locomotives, contributing to urban air pollution, gradually came to be seen as a public problem.