Prairie Whistles; Tales of Midwest Railroading
Black Earth, WI: Trail Books, 2001. First Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. viii, 128, [8] pages. Illustrations. Some Railroading Terms. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads: Kerry: Best wishes! (Thought you might like the tale on page 42) warm regards Dennis Boyer. All aboard for a glimpse of life on the rails! Weaving together tales of railroading days gone by, this collection of personal reminiscences will delight any fail fan or traveler. Featured are stories of conductors, porters, carmen and tower operators from around the Midwest. Dennis Boyer is a folklorist and storyteller who wrote Great Wisconsin Taverns for Trails Books, in addition to three collections of Wisconsin-related folklore: Driftless Spirits, Giants in the Land, and Northern Frights. Boyer is a member of several railroad historical societies, has written extensively for local historical society publications, and is active in historical preservation groups. He also participates in historical reenactments, most notably as a railroad character he refers to simply as "the old carman." Some of the stories relate to The Great Northern Railway which was an American Class I railroad. Running from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, it was the creation of 19th-century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill and was developed from the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Great Northern's route was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the U.S. Derived from the Foreword: Railroads occupy a special niche in the Midwest. Trains were the device by which our area was made a true crossroads of America. The interstate highways and the great air terminal hubs took their cues from the development and settlement patterns established by railroads. Preserving railroad stories is a tricky matter. Rail history buffs have done quite a bit to memorialize the physical artifacts and the technical specifications from railroads of times past. Very little has been done to preserve the oral history of railroading subcultures. Questions abound. How was railroading different from other blue-collar occupations in the industrial age? How did the various ethnic and immigrant groups interact with the railroads? What was the impact of rail arrival (and abandonment) on communities? Which parts of mind, heart, and soul were touched by train travel? This collection does not definitively answer those questions. But it does represent the author's effort to broaden the railroad heritage dialogue beyond equipment and buildings. If it provokes compilations of stories about women railroaders, dining car menus, livestock transport, African-American track crews, railroad snow removal, labor strife, railroad car ferries, and the hundreds of activities and aspects in and about railroads, well, he author would be a very happy rail fan. A word of explanation is also in order. While the author fancies himself something of a folklorist and have penned many a tall tale and collected a number of regional legends, this collection is a bit of a departure from the modus operandi used in his other books. Although these stories are infused with the humor and warmth of folktales, there is a strong case to be made that this collection stands apart in terms of the realism brought to the task by the narrators. It is, perhaps, more of a collection of reminiscences drawn from varying personal encounters with railroading. The reader will find heroes in these pages, but will also encounter the grit and wisdom that flows from the sources' experiences. The collection is organized into three parts reflecting three interconnected themes: the operation of trains, the maintenance of the railroad systems, and the multifaceted interactions between humans and trains. Readers will soon see that these divisions are not artificial distinctions. Railroading, like many pursuits, has its caste systems, and the varied perspectives of this world naturally flow from the disparate vantage points of the observers. And like many pursuits, railroading has its own colorful argot. To help readers with some of the terms in the collection, the author provided brief explanations of them at the end of the book. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Trains, Railroads, Transportation, Tracks, Locomotives, Passengers, Freight, Economic Development, Settlements, Carman, Immigrants, Canteen, Social Conditions
ISBN: 091502490X
[Book #84470]
Price: $65.00