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The Original Old Rails' Tales: Anecdotes, Stories, & Memoirs on the Road & in the Yard (New Abridged Family Edition)
Paperback
Publisher Price: $29.95
ISBN13: 9781412051132
Publisher: Authorhouse
Published: Mar 9 2010
Pages: 380
Weight: 1.06
Height: 0.85 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
This oral journalism/oral history book is written in a style blended of classical American anecdotist James Thurber and classical Russian author Anton Chekhov, providing matter-of-fact reporting of the most emotional moments of the on-the-job lives of six generations of American 'rails' (a self-titled term used by those who work running the railroads).
True stories from the lives of American RailsAlan Allen releases family edition of 'cream of the crop' railroading book
SAN FRANCISCO - The only book of on-the-job, true stories told first-hand by six generations of steam engineers, firemen, conductors, brakemen, switchmen, dispatchers, yardmasters and superintendents on Southern Pacific, Western Pacific, Santa Fe and Amtrak - and the first women engineers in California, Old Rails' Tales: Anecdotes, Stories & Memoirs on the Road and in the Yard (published by Trafford) shares 285 true stories and anecdotes in this newly released abridged family edition for ages 9 to adult. Includes foreword by Studs Terkel and interview with Linda Neimann.
When reviewed in limited hard cover edition in 1991, New York Times said, a word of praise for Old Rails' Tales, volume one of an up-to-the-minute American railroad history edited by Alan Allen...straight forward...substantial and well-researched...cream of the crop...in touch with railroading! Bold! Buoyant! Energetic! Compassionate! Extraordinary! Now available in paperback.
Author Alan Allen provides matter-of-fact oral journalism reporting the most emotional moments in the working lives of American 'rails', a self-titled term used by railroad workers, including riding on top of runaway boxcars towards Coathanger Curve, running into gasoline trucks that explode at track crossings, chasing escaped rabbits through derailed boxcars full of blueberries then thru town, and how to run a steam locomotive.
Conservative and hippie, good natured, funny, and rebellious rails are interviewed in this oral history of everyday on-the-job blue collar heroes of our Americana steam era.
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