I'd heard this story anecdotally from a railfan friend and it recently surfaced in my social media feeds again. Emergency use of diesel locomotives to provide electrical power after a 1998 ice storm in Boucherville, Quebec:
https://gizmodo.com/that-time-a-cana...d-d-1846307148
https://www.thedrive.com/news/39378/...utal-ice-storm
The second article provides links to a couple of rail forum discussions with more technical information on how to accomplish this.
While I don't see this being viable in most locales circa 2000, it may have been a stopgap measure used in late 1997 or early 1998 - immediately after the nuclear strikes, when diesel fuel reserves were still a thing. This could result in PCs encountering a (damaged, stranded) locomotive in a very unexpected place...
- C.