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railroad stories
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40381
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Author:  steamfan765 [ Thu Feb 16, 2017 8:49 am ]
Post subject:  railroad stories

I am trying to write some books for kids that is kind of like The Railway Series so I'm trying to find some stories you know like events, accidents, and incidents that I could use for the books. So if anyone of you have any stories please share them with me. they might make it into the books.

if anyone of you can share them with me will be a big help.

thanks

Author:  weekendrailroader [ Thu Feb 16, 2017 12:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: railroad stories

Get yourself a copy of the book "A Treasury of Railroad Folklore". Orginally published in 1953, it is a collection of all sorts of stories, jokes, poems, and other recollections of American Railroading up to the 1950s. It's a wonderful read, and will give you plenty of material to work with.

Author:  rem1028 [ Thu Feb 16, 2017 1:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: railroad stories

I would have to agree with you Drew. This is a terrific book!

Author:  colfaxstation [ Thu Feb 16, 2017 2:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: railroad stories

You also might want to check the early Railroad Stories/Railroad Magazines. They had monthly stories just like you're seeking.

Author:  Overmod [ Thu Feb 16, 2017 2:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: railroad stories

My earliest experience with this was Freeman Hubbard's Great Trains of All Time -- although you may have covered all the individual "topics" there already, I think it's a good example of how to do this "for kids".

There are good stories in a number of places, and people you should contact individually off list (Jack Neiss, for example, or "NDG" on the Trains Magazine forums). While not all of their stories may be directly 'kid-friendly', of course, they have an eye toward the things that make a story memorable.

The account of the great flood in "Three Barrels of Steam" is one thing you might very directly adapt as an unexpectedly compelling tale.

Admittedly a great deal of the actual railroad stories to be told are, as J.K.Rowling put it, "darker" than most of the things Rev. Awdry or Britt Alcroft put into their respective franchises. I think some of that sense definitely carries over to "today's" child audience (as opposed to likely readers in 1953 or 1962) and I think you might put more into your stories than historical 'introduction to railroading' material has...

Author:  steamfan765 [ Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: railroad stories

well the stories doesn't have to take place before the 50s it can be from modern times likes 60's-90's even later and then place those events and incidents into the books and make it sound like they happened in 30's-50's. I'm also trying to get any local railroading incidents things that are not common or very little known incident that I can put it in the books.

Rev. W. Awdry did just that in a number of his books like Dome less engines, Off the rails and so on they were based on a true event. I get it he started writing in the 1940's and wrote his last in 1972.

If you have a local railroading incident happen please share.

I hope this clears things up a little?

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