Envisagedly enviable are those who get the chance to hear things from sharers in whatever passion, who were around that long ago: the more so with an interest like ours, in which (for those of us with that particular bent) there was so much wonderful stuff which obtained "back then", but is now no more.
I had many conversations with a dear uncle (1918 -- 2010); re which I have posted a fair amount on these Forums. He wasn't a railway enthusiast as such; but was a very bright guy who delighted in many and varied things which the world around him, had to offer: he "got" what it was about railways in the era of steam, and most of the system still active, which kindled the passion in people such as me -- notwithstanding its never becoming a big interest of his. He loved talking about his doings in times past, and had interesting stuff to tell of, concerning rail-related experiences which had come his way in the course of his going about his life's occasions -- he'd travelled widely in the British Isles (not much, further afield: he was, a bit, of the "abroad is bloody; it's insanitary and full of foreigners" school of thought).
One of the most splendid "things heard from someone much older" which I have come across, relates to the USA. Came my way from a past message-board contact of mine, who was a railway enthusiast and a resident of Colorado. This chap -- I think roughly my age, born 1948 -- had been acquainted -- again, I think: in the 1970s or '80s -- with a gentleman born around the turn of the 19th / 20th centuries: once more, a bod with a certain amount of interest in railways, but not an "addict". Said elderly gent told my contact of travels in Colorado in his extreme youth, in the company of his father, who had a senior managerial position in the mining industry which took him to all manner of different locations in the area. These journeys often involved travel on the lines of the Colorado Midland Railway (named thus, not the more common American "Railroad"); which has a certain sad fame, as the earliest large-scale railway abandonment in US history -- at the early date of 1918. This fantastically mountainous-scenic and -acrobatic line was from its late-1880s inception, always something of a "white elephant" -- but would have almost for sure lasted at least a bit longer than it did; had its closure not come about largely as a result of dictatorial bureaucratic bungling stemming from US railways' falling temporarily under nation-wide control, as a result of the US's entering World War I. I feel that living memories at so few removes, of the Colorado Midland, must be more than a little bit rare.
The above, in general, is sometimes a big worry for railway enthusiasts of my generation: when we die, which in the nature of things must be relatively soon -- what will our non-railway-obsessed nearest-and-dearest do with our collected, of whatever kind, rail-related stuff? It will often be what your guy's wife did with his material. A thing which exercises my mind a bit; albeit I have re this matter, comparatively understanding and well-disposed younger relatives...