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Good Train/RR stories

PotomacBob 🚫

Looking for good or better stories where trains/railroads play a major role in the story. Time period - any time from the first railroad to today.
Genre can be anything - re-do; romance; mystery; sci-fi, Western - as long as it is a good story. "Good," by my definition is where the author makes you care what happens to the characters, spins an interesting yarn (I give few demerits for imperfect proofreading).
I can search for train or railroad in stories - but that brings up stories in which the term is used only once in the story and produces way too many results to sort through them.
Feel free to describe why you like the stories.

Replies:   AmigaClone  richardshagrin  Gauthier
      
AmigaClone 🚫

@PotomacBob

Snowplow Extra by Wes Boyd

In the middle of the worst snowstorm of the decade, the whole town was burning down. The only hope lay on two rusty steel rails... Railroad workers and firemen struggle against fire, storm, and failing equipment to battle a raging fire in an isolated northwoods town. This was written to show that a thrilling action-adventure yarn can be written without ANY sex or interpersonal violence. "G" rated, except for a little rough language.

Replies:   madnige  anim8ed
      
madnige 🚫

@AmigaClone

As a follow-up, the third story in the 'Bird' subseries (The Birdwatcher Hill Fire, only on Wes' Spearfish lake tales site or BtFH) has a reprise of the role of the railway in fighting a fire.

      
anim8ed 🚫

@AmigaClone

Snowplow Extra by Wes Boyd

This was the first story I thought of as well when reading the request. The story is all Railroad. There is a lot of 'edge of your seat' action and I was totally pulled into the story and the struggle of the characters in the story. It is one of my top 10 stories.

      
LonelyDad 🚫

'Christmas Blues at Random Valley Junction' by Stultus.

https://storiesonline.net/s/14790/christmas-blues-at-random-valley-junction

      
Ernest Bywater 🚫

https://finestories.com/s/10097/abby

Thomas Tregonney has served the railway well and faithfully. When the railway is closed, what else should he do?

     
LonelyDad 🚫

'Snowplow Extra' is another Wes Boyd story where a train forms a major part of the story.

Replies:   Dinsdale
      
Dinsdale 🚫

@LonelyDad

Did you not look at the other postings?
Two of the five responses mentioned that story directly and another one indirectly.

      
Argon 🚫

another one by Texrep:
https://finestories.com/s/10248/echoes-of-a-bitter-past

      
limab 🚫

Stultus
Anger Not Those Wild Wyldewood Boys Some trains.
Christmas Blues at Random Valley Junction more trains.

I think Howard Faxon had one also.

limab

      
Dinsdale 🚫

Of course some stories here mention "Pulling a Train". Would they qualify?

      
richardshagrin 🚫

@PotomacBob

Good Train/RR stories

Project Guttenburg suggests 27 stories.

"Books about Railroad stories (sorted by popularity)
Sort Alphabetically
Sort by Release Date
Displaying results 1–25 | Next
The Octopus : A Story of California
Frank Norris
245 downloads
The Depot Master
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
59 downloads

The Young Train Master
Burton Egbert Stevenson
58 downloads

Held for Orders: Being Stories of Railroad Life
Frank H. Spearman
39 downloads
Whispering Smith
Frank H. Spearman
37 downloads
Dyke Darrel the Railroad Detective; Or, The Crime of the Midnight Express
A. Frank Pinkerton
32 downloads
Danger Signals
John A. Hill and Jasper Ewing Brady
30 downloads

The Young Train Dispatcher
Burton Egbert Stevenson
28 downloads
The Night Operator
Frank L. Packard
26 downloads

Excuse Me!
Rupert Hughes
26 downloads

The Wire Devils
Frank L. Packard
25 downloads

Stories of the Railroad
John A. Hill
23 downloads

The Nerve of Foley, and Other Railroad Stories
Frank H. Spearman
20 downloads

Cab and Caboose: The Story of a Railroad Boy
Kirk Munroe
19 downloads

On the Iron at Big Cloud
Frank L. Packard
17 downloads

Tales of the Trains
Charles James Lever
16 downloads

Empire Builders
Francis Lynde
15 downloads

Chasing an Iron Horse
Edward Robins
13 downloads
The White Desert
Courtney Ryley Cooper
11 downloads
Ralph, the Train Dispatcher; Or, The Mystery of the Pay Car
Allen Chapman
10 downloads

The Silent Alarm
Roy J. Snell
10 downloads

A Romance in Transit
Francis Lynde
9 downloads

The Manager of the B. & A.: A Novel
Vaughan Kester
8 downloads
A Fool for Love
Francis Lynde
8 downloads
The Last Spike
Cy Warman
8 downloads
Displaying results 1–25 | Next

Replies:   PotomacBob
      
PotomacBob 🚫

@richardshagrin

Project Guttenburg suggests 27 stories.

I am both impressed and appreciative of the list. I will make use of it.

      
karactr 🚫

Damn. A cogent, non-pun response from Richard.

Color me impressed.

Replies:   helmut_meukel
      
helmut_meukel 🚫

@karactr

Damn. A cogent, non-pun response from Richard.

He just mangled the name to Project Guttenburg

HM.

      
Banadin 🚫

I hate to blow Rich Hard's cover but when he isn't being funny his thoughts are always cogent. That is co-gent as he helps the gentlemen see the error of their ways, or weights if they ate too much during the Holidays.

      
Nulaak83 🚫

Might as well toss Atlas Shrugged in there if you're looking at older novels.

Replies:   PotomacBob
      
PotomacBob 🚫

@Nulaak83

I don't remember (it's been a long time) a train in Atlas Shrugged. What role did it play?(I assume your memory is better than mine.)

      
Nulaak83 🚫

The protagonist runs the largest railroad in the country and there are hundreds of references to trains throughout the novel.

Replies:   PotomacBob
      
PotomacBob 🚫

@Nulaak83

Thank you!

Replies:   darrok
      
darrok 🚫

@PotomacBob

How about "Murder on the Orient Express"?

     
Ernest Bywater 🚫

I expected Richard to mention, but since he hasn't, how about Thomas the Tank Engine?

Replies:   darrok
     
darrok 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

Or Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, great German book by Michael Ende

     
awnlee jawking 🚫

Some classics from the dead tree world where trains play a key role:

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White (filmed as The Lady Vanishes)
4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie
Von Ryan's Express by David Westheimer

AJ

      
helmut_meukel 🚫

Breakheart Pass and the movie 'Breakhart Pass' starring Charles Bronson.

HM.

      
karactr 🚫

"Thomas and Friends"? "The Little Engine that Could"?

      
Gauthier 🚫

@PotomacBob

If you read french, Georges-Jean Arnaud has 97 novels about a train company set in a post-apocalyptic ice age settings. (That was a very long read...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Compagnie_des_glaces

Replies:   madnige
      
madnige 🚫
Updated:

@Gauthier

set in a post-apocalyptic ice age settings

Thank you for jogging my memory - There's also Hard Winter by Big guy on a bike (info) where a heritage line in North Yorkshire, UK, is used to tie together and support the declining vestiges of society hit by extreme climate change.

      
Flanny_315 🚫

Stephen King's gunslinger series has a whole book more or less dedicated to a train. Let me tell you, Blaine is a pain, and that's the truth.

      
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