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CLEAR THE TRACKS! by Joseph Bromley

CLEAR THE TRACKS!

By

Pub Date: Sept. 9th, 1943
Publisher: Whittlesey House

Railroading of the 90's as experienced by the author from the time he was 16 and tried to get his first railroading job. Here are the sounds, the smells, the lingo of the day, the high individuality of the engines and their engineers, the conductors, the ""Old Man"" who ruled with violent fury -- here is the shift from wood to coal burning engines, of leisurely life aiming for but not subservient to routine schedules, of extra runs and regular routes. There are stories of fellow trainmen, of comic incidents, of near tragedies, of passengers and of uncooperative inhabitants of the track environs, from Utica to Binghamton. At 20 an engineer, and then further tales of his experiences, a blizzard, a runaway train, a engine known as a killer; tales of beating the system, when, where and if you could. New management and standardization of rules, behavior, engines, railroading in general, and how the old timers took it. The emphasis is on the old times rather than the new, light touching on labor problems, flamboyant gestures of the period, worked into good material unassumingly handled.