Trainwire, when I was a kid growing up just outside of Chicago I remember the engines on the commuter trains would be left idling all weekend and on holidays. They stopped doing it, I was told, because someone took one out for a joy ride one time!
I suspect there are other reasons to shut them down now days. I believe it takes more fuel to start one than it does to idle it for two days, does it not?
There was a story about a stewardess that worked out of Ohare, she had a Mercedes diesel and in the winter she would leave it idling in the parking lot the whole time she was in flight.
