Life along the Tracks
Candid Stories from a Career Railroader
Mike McLaughlin author Jim Providenza author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Washington State University Press
Publishing:31st Oct '24
£38.95
This title is due to be published on 31st October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
As a boy in the early 1950s, Mike McLaughlin was a regular stowaway riding switch engines back and forth in Seattle, Washington. By the time he was in high school, he was hand-firing steam engines as an unofficial crew member. Obsessed with trains and destined for a life along the tracks, he started by digging ditches as a gandy and ended as a railroad and transportation consultant, but he never completely relinquished his shovel. His career spanned multiple railroads, including Great Northern, Denver & Rio Grande Western, and Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, as well as transportation management for several large industrial firms.
With McLaughlin, even the mundane becomes fascinating. Unlike those of an executive or engineer, his personal accounts focus on what went on behind the scenes--from the finer points of using a shovel to suddenly having to reroute 16,000 tons of talc ore from Montana to a ship in Portland. He describes living and working as part of maintenance and signal gangs, moving days on several lines, supervisory issues, and more. His collection of mid-20th century timetables and other paper ephemera provide minute detail related to railroad activities and communications. Numerous photographs and Dave Clemens' hand-drawn maps enhance the text, illustrate where stories take place, and promote a deeper understanding of some gritty, intense railroading.
“Life along the Tracks is work glove, Carhartts, and hard hat history, not railroading according to Washington, Wall Street, or downtown offices. It is history worth telling and knowing.” - Bill Schaumburg, retired editor of Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine
ISBN: 9781638640301
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
260 pages