Anybody know any good railroad historical novels? I know that Railroad Magazine published a lot of short stories, but I'm looking for novels. Particularly fictionalizations of famous railroad events, although pure fiction will do, too. It seems like most railroad books are either picture books or pure history, which gets boring after you've been through a few dozen where the only difference is the railroad!

"The Great Train Robbery" by Michael Crichton comes to mind....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006050 ... e&n=283155

Joseph Vranich is a another author of fictional works that deal with railroad related topics.

Derailed and End of the Line are two of his more recent titles.

Personally, I prefer fictional works that are written by people who have a better grasp of both recent and historical issues within the railroad industry.

Tom Cornillie

David P. Morgan lamented back in the sixties in Trains Magazine that the great railroad novel had yet to be written, despite the obvious potential of the subject matter. So you are probably out of luck.

"The Octopus" comes to mind, but it's neither great nor really a railroad book.

Despite my political leanings, I never read Ayn Rand until my sister-in-law gave me a copy of "Atlas Shrugged" saying, "You'll like this. It's about trains." Not knowing anything about the Ayn Rand cult, the book looked to her like a railroad novel. Of course it is, and its depiction of industrial decay is a perfect prediction and description of the Penn Central of the 1970's. The story is said to have been inspired by a cab ride on the Century in the late 1940's. I'm a bit surprised that I've never seen this book referred to by railfans. Way too wordy, but the cover illustration is a classic.

Harry Bedwell, author of many Railroad Magazine short stories, wrote one novel-length story about his boomer telegrapher character, Eddie Sand. The book was called "The Boomer" and was said to have had a big printing during World War II in a cheap soldiers' edition, but I have never seen a copy.

At the risk of derailing the thread, there is at least one great novel with (marine) steam engines as its central metaphor: "The Sand Pebbles," which I suspect will be familiar to many readers of this board. This book is kept in print by the Naval Institute.

"Hello, ship."

From the 1950's, by author James McCague, two railroad novels, "The Big Ivy", and "Fiddle Hill". "The Big Ivy"'s climax was a speed record run on a fictional turn of the century midwestern road, and "Fiddle Hill" dealt with a merger at the time of dieselization. Of course, there was all of the classic "pulp fiction" RR short stories from the 1st half of the 20th century, also. When I was a teen I used to devour old issues of Railroad Magazine for the fiction. Some classics were any of Harry Bedwell's "Eddie Sand" stories, and John John's "Night Run" and "Big Engines". Another author whose name I can't remember had a hero who was a Master Mechanic named "Patchbolt". Excellent 'tongue in cheek humor. I believe that this gentleman was a Virginian Ry. engineer in "real life". And of course there were those great books and stories by Frank Spearman and Cy Warman. There is actually a very large body of rail fiction out there, it just takes some research to find it.

"One Way to Eldorado" by Hollister Noble (sounds like a nom-de-plume) is set in the mid-fifties on a fictionalized version of the SP's Sierra crossing, complete with snowsheds, cab-forwards and rotary plows. Not a bad read, and certainly worthwhile for SP fans.

There was a Novel about the building of FEC's Key-West Extension. I do not recall the name or author but I remember it was a novel. I did a book report on it and my english teacher gave me heck about the report because I had done a novel. I did not understand at the time that a novel was fiction :)
Doug vv

Two thoughts come to mind:

1. "Von Ryan's Express" was a book before it became a (good? bad? I have no opinion) war movie. I actually enjoy the book. It does seem reasonably realistic in its depiction of how a complete train operates (not including the premise of prisoners taking over the train and bluffing their way across the Italian rail network)-coupling, throwing switches, shoveling coal into the firebox, etc-again, from a layperson perspective.

2. While in junior high school eons ago, I read a science fiction short story about a guy who got lost in Grand Central Station-circa 1960s. Eventually, he came out onto a train platform/concourse in Grand Central-circa 1890s, complete with steam-powered trains, people in period attire, etc. He somehow rode a train out of GC, came back....wandered around and somehow got back to the GC of the 1960s. He never could find that mysterious concourse again. Later, he mentioned it to a friend, who later disappeared. After that, the main character found a wrinkled, old letter in his personal posession, postmarked 1890....written by the 1960s-era friend to whom he confided the story. The friend packed up his family and moved back in time-evidently preferring life in the 1890s to life in the 1960s. Fun story. Anybody know the title?

if you like the gee-gee's as well, you could try "The Edge" by Dick Francis, the story takes place on board a train travelling east to west across Canada.
the author researches particularly well and in particular details the political intricacies of trying to hitch a horse/stock car owned by the private Canadian railroad, onto a train formation run by the State one.

the Hero of the story is travelling undercover on the train and has assistance from the conductor, hence we get a lot of rail input.

I've only seen the film version of Von Ryan's express which is very enjoyable. It contains the usual German, English and Italian stereotypes!!
together with Frank swaggering his way expertly through the movie.

I remember a title of a story based in Grand Central called "The Third Level", which may be what you are thinking of, but since I read it 40 years ago, the details have faded to the point I don't remember the plot.

Look for a copy of "Abduction of Virginia Lee" by Frank O'Rourke in the early 1970s. The book was a paperback novel about a contemporary millionaire with a luxury private car that is stolen by his mistress and hidden in the desert.

Wesley

Frank Norris, the author of The Octopus (1901), earlier wrote the novel McTeague (1899). While not a railroad novel it does have a number of references to railroads including opening the story in a San Francisco cafe used by streetcar crews. The protagonist ends up riding the Carson & Colorado to Keeler and then makes his way into Death Valley where he dies. McTeague became the basis for the silent movie Greed.

A principal event in the novel The Octopus is the shooting at Mussell Slough. This event has been told many different ways over the years. For a good review of the event and the retellings see a chapter in Orsi's Sunset Limited which is about the Southern Pacific and the development of the West published by University of California Press.

I too am a great fan of railroad fiction, especially in the steam era. Probably the best source is back issues of the old Railroad Magazine. One of my favorite authors who wrote a number of stories in Railroad is Gilbert Lathrop who was a fireman, conductor and brakeman on the Rio Grande narrow gage. Two of the books he wrote were "Little Engines and Big Men" and "Rio Grande Glory Days". Both are excellent.

There is an historical novel called, "THE 17" by Edwin C. Washburn (1929). It is a very unusual work about the life and times of a Soo Line engine told by the engine itself in the manner of personification. It may sound childish, but it is miles deep. I would be interested to know if anyone has read it.

Here is a link to a used copy:

http://search.abaa.org/dbp2/detailindex ... ce=froogle

Erie Train Boy. by Horatio Alger.