“In Ankh-Morpork you can be whoever you want to be and
sometimes people laugh and sometimes they clap, and mostly
and beautifully, they don't really care.”
The first few pages tell the backstory of Dick Simnel, which is quite touching. His father died working on an idea for a steam engine, prompting his mother to move away from their old home to escape the bad memories. He swore to himself he would one day command steam, rather than fear it. His mother had him properly educated, and so he had access to mathematics, and various other useful skills and concepts. Eventually, he confronts his mother with the fact that he'd been back to his dad's old shed against her wishes, and reveals that he's built a working miniature steam engine. After some tears, she gives him a box of pirate treasure passed down her side of the family, so that he can make the most of his invention. And so he comes to Ankh-Morpork...
And when we see him visit his mother in Sto Lat he playfully picks her in his arms.
Honestly, the whole scene at Mrs. Simnel's house was this. The nice house he got her, all the ways he makes sure that she's comfortable and taken care of in her old age. And the little mention at the end of the clock that signifies that Dick gets his mother all the nicest things he can find.
Moist's relationship with Dick Simnel is also heartwarming. He has great respect for the boy's genius, and honestly, behaves a lot like the father Dick must have lost to the Steam when he was young. When she meets him, Mrs Simnel immediately knows who he is, not just from the newspapers: but from all the wonderful things her son said about him. Moist Von Lipwig, of all people. A freakin'Role Model.
Rufus Drumknott discovering a passion for the steam engine. He's spent most of his appearances being a quiet, tidy, professional young man whose primary personal interests have to do with filing; seeing him being so openly happy about something else is just nice.
He smiles an awful lot in this book, in general.
On a related note, Vetinari and Drumknott's interactions throughout the entire book are familiar and at times downright friendly. Vetinari is bewildered by Drumknott's new found passion for the steam engine, but seems happy to indulge him and doesn't object to Drumknott taking mornings off to work at the train yard. Drumknott, for his part, takes a somewhat hilariously protective stance on the matter of the newspaper's crossword puzzles and how increasingly distressed they've been making his boss, finally putting his foot down and seemingly getting in touch with the editor.
At the end of the book, it's Drumknott who persuades Vetinari to go around the back of the palace to be shown the goblin-made bicycle. Vetinari's first response is simply "You're going to want one of these, aren't you?"
There's a bit where Vetinari comes out of a sulk and "beamed at Drumknott [...] warmly". Kind of a big deal from him!
The illustrations from Mrs. Bradshaw's, the railway guide follow-up to Raising Steam, indicate that young Of The Wheel The Spoke's bicycles are indeed a rousing success.
Harry, while proud of having made his fortune in the night-soil trade, was looking for something he could build a legacy out of. He gets his opportunity with the Hygenic Railway.
Harry King providing a pension for the elderly mother of two ill-fated engine builders, even assuring her that he'll personally make sure her sons' loss won't be forgotten. It makes Moist regret his own inability to not look for angles, since he knows that Harry's gesture was genuine kindness with no ulterior motive whatsoever.
Furthermore, the story goes out of its way to fully describe Harry King's good treatment of his employees - while he would complain loudly about the cost of everything, he nevertheless makes sure his employees are well-provided for, with decent meals, reasonable lodgings, and even some measure of a health plan (hospital bills incurred by the family of his employees had a habit of vanishing as soon as Harry King heard about them)!
In a blink and you'll miss it section, a Dwarf librarian and Troll librarian meet waiting for a train. They talk about words and their love of words, and its implied that they went to Brazeneck University to be librarians there together.
Rhys changes her name to Blodwen, after the Dwarfish bride killed for marrying a human.
Also Fridge Brilliance, if you remember from The Fifth Elephant that Rhys is also from Llamedos. It's very possible that the Low King/Queen knew Blodwen personally, or at least knew her parents. Or may even have been related to her.
Albrecht Albrechtson, who came across as a bitter old grump in The Fifth Elephant, standing faithfully behind Rhys in the clinch and befriending a goblin child who brings messages to him after Ardent locks him up.
Albretch: Tak save the queen! And I will fight anyone who says otherwise.
Likewise, early in the book, we're given scenes where conservative dwarves stand up against the grags and their cronies, protecting their more liberal kinsmen.
Moist giving the golem horse a name and the chance to run around meadows like a real horse. (Yeah, golems aren't expected to have such feelings as pleasure, but in Discworld anything that takes the shape of another creature takes on some of that creature's nature, so bravo for letting Flash go rolling in the daisies!)
Iron Girder deciding she likes Emily King. Although she may have been a teeny bit jealous early on, she even scolds Moist for his lack of faith after he worries about her possibly hurting Emily. Later, Dick mentions that Emily always comes out of the rail yard without a speck of dirt on her clothes.
The amicable working relationship that Vimes and Moist develop, to where Vimes explicitly says to his wife Moist isn't that bad (though he'll never tell Moist so).
Vimes (in his own fashion) is rather kind to Moist when he realizes that Moist is still incredibly shaken from going into a rather Beast-like state and slaughtering a number of grags who had killed a number of railway workers. Vimes has experienced berserker madness and the subsequent reactions.
When Rhys and Detritus meet again for the first time since The Fifth Elephant is definitely one, especially Rhys's greeting words to the troll:
King Rhys: Detritus! If you're on board, then perhaps I don't need any other bodyguards!
Essentially the whole book to longtime fans of the series. Terry Pratchett likely knew he didn't have much time left while writing this one, and so took pains to send the Discworld off with as much optimism as possible, checking in with numerous characters who we've gotten to know so well and seeing them all facing a bright future.
Numerous characters except for the Chalk and Lancre contingents, whom we'd have our opportunity to say goodbye to in The Shepherd's Crown. And whose locales, Pterry judiciously has the rail lines bypass, ostensibly because Lancre Bridge couldn't handle the weight, but more probably so that their rustic charm can be preserved - untouched by tourists or commercial opportunism - in readers' memories.
Terry creates the Discworld one last Goddess before he had to go with the one who brought the sword, and it's possibly the most fitting of all possible personifications: one that symbolises progress and advancement and a world that is ever changing and improving and one that, throughout the entire book, has been insistently referred to as she in defiance of any stereotype people might have about steam and grease and metal: Iron Girder herself.
The story of a group of humans and a group of dwarfs working adjacent mine shafts. When one shaft collapsed, the miners in the other overpowered the guards keeping people from one group from trespassing in the other's shaft and dug them out. And the clincher? Neither side remembers which group was the rescuers and which the rescuees, and neither side cares. They both know that if they were the ones in danger, they could count on help from the other, and if the other side was in danger, they would answer the call to help.
A subtle one, but during the traintop fight, Vimes's mark of the Summoning Dark visibly shines on his righteously-battling arm. An embodiment of living Darkness is shining. Looks like Vimes has taught the once purely-vengeful entity to take up the Guarding Dark's lantern, and higher notion of Justice, completely.
