JINGLE THE BRASS

Young trainiacs will definitely “jingle the brass” (as in: ring the bell) at this lingo-heavy trip into railroading’s past. Gabbing away, a veteran engineer takes a lad in tow for a freight run aboard a steam-driven “hog,” to watch the “ash-cat” shovel “black diamonds,” roar past gandy-dancers repairing tracks, pull over to let a passenger train by—“Oooh-wee! Look at all that varnish speedin’ by. If you were on the plush, you could sleep in the snoozer and put on the nosebag in the diner”—flash rods up hills and through a tunnel, then part company at journey’s end for a deadhead run back. Chesworth sets the journey in pre-diesel years, when there were still cabooses for cowboys to ride in and railroad “bulls” lie in wait to eject hoboes. His watercolors are loosely drawn, but the details—with the help of a discreet label or two—are easy to make out. Oddly, there’s no whistle-blowing on the way, but that’s no reason not to step aboard. Newman defines all the argot so adroitly in context that the closing glossary is superfluous. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-8)