WHISTLE FOR THE CROSSING

Camping overnight on the Delaware River near home, scrounging for treasures at the now decayed and abandoned Penn's Manor, twelve-year-old Eddie leads a near-idyllic existence in innocent 1852--when the Pennsylvania railroad inaugurates a run from Philadelphia straight to Pittsburgh and Eddie's Pa is chosen as the engineer. This means that Pa and Eddie will move (Ma has recently died), and the bulk of the story takes him to his new Pittsburgh home on the route's first trip--with Pa at the throttle, railroad men on board singing Pa's praises, and excited crowds at every whistle stop. At one point they all fear that rain might flood the riverside tracks, and, at another, they are stopped by an overheated wheel. But there's no real tension--just Eddie's fascination with the Iron Horse and his button-busting pride in his Pa.