Hi,

Firstly I hope that I have put this in the right section in that it is a transport but not flying-related question.

But anyway I really just wanted to try and ask this being someone who does like to read books written by pilots sometimes (or retired ones). Mostly civilian stuff by people like Stanley Stewart or Bob Buck.

So anyway a kind of book I still would love to read maybe but never seem to find is one written by a current or ex rail-driver? But is it just me or do there never seem to be any? And is there any real reason for this if true other than they might be just too boring? But in particular I guess I was just looking for anything really in if possible digital format (for use with a screen-reader) by a career train driver or failing that something on construction or operation of something like the channel tunnel here between the UK and France etc.

Anyway sorry if this was a bit of a badly presented question but any reccommendations would be great hopefully. Maybe I could also try a forum search too though here but so far searching online bookstores has not got me too far(!)

Anyway with many thanks again from here and any suggestions etc. welcome,

Ps762

Becoming a career pilot at a major airline has significantly tougher standards for entry. Rail companies tend to be more open minded about who they will hire as drivers.
While being in control of a fast moving vehicle is very different to writing a book... there is some correlation between demanding criteria for hiring and the ability to author a book that will be of interest to a wide audience and likely to be supported by a commercial publisher

Or, to be really rude and non-PC about it - thick people who left school aged 16 don't usually make for good authors

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Or, to be really rude and non-PC about it - thick people who left school aged 16 don't usually make for good authors

Many have ghost writers helping them.
The OP seems to be British but I have a couple of US books that might interest him. The first was by a Pennsylvania RR steam locomotive engineer titled Set Up Running. The second was from a Seaboard Coast Line engineer who started on freights and then transferred to Amtrak to run passenger trains.. It is probably the better book. At least I thought so. It's cheaper, too.

https://www.amazon.com/Set-Running-Penn ... 027102741X
https://www.amazon.com/Cab-Stories-Loco ... _ap_sc_dsk

Are you talking about the UK.

Paul Holland "My life as a rear end", stories from an US conductor (not a train driver, but close).

"Old rails' tales", anecdotes, stories, & memoirs on the road & in the yard.

"Real stories of the rails", by Trains Magazine.

If you can cope with a bit of high school science:
"Train wreck", the forensics of rail disasters, by George Bibel.

"Red for danger", the classic history of British railway disasters, by L.T.C. Rolt

And I could give you some Dutch and German titels, but I'm not sure that would help you.

Hi,

Just to say many thanks for the suggestions and stuff and hopefully some places for me to start looking. In terms of where the books come from I really don't mind also as well (although yes I do live in the UK). But anywhere is fine only I guess my only limits are that the book is probably better being in English and also if possible digital since with sight issues I'm not unfortunately great (although I do still like) paper books.

And finally I guess on the intellect thing well I really can't say(!) I just do seem to find though that at least here in the UK with rail magazines and stuff the focus seems to me so far to be more on technical news, specific historical events and stuff. All good stuff but still I do like my scenery sometimes as well if possible(!)

And finally if curious I did at least meet a London Underground driver here in the London area once which for me was cool. The only thing was that when I excitedly asked about the different routes and places he unfortuneately explained that no he pretty much just went up and down one line all day when working. But still he was pretty nice about it to me at least when I asked(!)

Anyway with many thanks again and will try and look some of this stuff up many thanks again,

Ps762

Veering a bit off topic since it's more about the building and financing of a US railroad: I enjoyed Nothing Like It In the World by Stephen Ambrose, about the construction of the US transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. Very little to do with the actual operation/driving of the trains, but an interesting read on the financing, politics, corruption/bribery, and people behind the project.

Dear Ps762,

I googled "Books written by train drivers" and got a few books you might find some of them interesting. Since I haven't read any of them I unfortunately can't comment on them (sorry if you already tried Google).

During my college days I worked for the Swiss railway company and since 15 years I'm working in railway track construction, so let me give a few anecdotes that I hope will interest you.

Contrary to Liz Truss (train driver have less responsibility and earn more than than politicians), I'm fully aware of the difficulties of the job. Having the responsability of 1000 passengers or 2000 ton of highly toxic chemicals in the back is rather something. Usually the allowed spead changes offten and on track with high train frequency you'll face a signal every two to three minutes. The stress when entering a crowed platform isn't fun either. Irregular working hours, loneliness in your cab and on older engines (especially diesel engines) a rather loud working environment and many other other points.
But since you talked about pilots in your opening post there is a major difference with train drivers. I assume most pilots writing books are the "heroes": Those men and women that when something went badly wrong saved the day. "Unfortunately" train drivers have rearly the possibility to be heroes because when you notice something went wrong it is usually to late...and all the driver can do is hit the break and hope that the train can break enough to avoid the worst. And that get us to probably the worst part of the job: suicides.
And while stories about suicides might sell some books, it is obvious that most drivers don't want to write a book about the worst day of their lives. And while suicides are bad enough, a few get it even worse and have a working college dying under their train (railway construction worker is one of the most dangerous job in Switzerland).

I did once a cab ride in the night train from Basel to Paris. After a few hours we passed a railroad crossing when the driver suddenly told me: "A few years a go a drunken school bus driver brook the closed barriers in front of me and I cut the bus in two". I was shocked, sad about the many dead kids, but also happy the poor man had managed to get over it and kept doing what he loved. Unfortunately many train driver can't and have to quite their job after a suicide.

I hope I didn't bring down to much with this tragic anecdote and hope you'll enjoy those a little more:

One an other cab ride in a TGV from Besançon to Paris we had reached the
scheduled departure time when the station manager informed us that they had forgotten to open the doors of the second train set. We final left Besançon about 15 minutes late and the driver managed to slowly win back minutes...
There is an interesting feature on the high speed line Lyon - Paris. When the TGV is on time, about 30 miles from Paris the driver can cut traction and let the TGV roll. Slowly loosing spead (from 300 km/h) the train passes the max allowed spead limit of 220/160/120/30 without using the break until the final stop in front of the buffer in Paris Gare de Lyon...
But since we still were behind schedule the driver kept traction going, always breaking at the last minute and we managed to be back on schedule just before Paris. Then the last signal before the platform was red forcing us to stop. I don't think I ever heard somebody cuss as much as the train driver that day (We finally arrived with about 7 minutes delay in Paris Gare de Lyon).

On an other TGV cab ride from Paris to Lausanne we talked a lot...
In France (and likely in every country) the schedule has some time reserves. I'm not sure if I remember correctly but I think at the time it was 3 minutes for 100 kilometers (or 3 minutes for 1 hour). This means that if the train is on schedule he has to go slower to lose the reserve. For our train to make the schedule this meant max spead on the high speed line and than 120 km/h instead of the allowed 160 km/h on the the classical ligne (old line Paris - Lyon - Marseille, famous ramp of Blaisy-Bas).
Since we left Paris on time, and went full spead over the high speed line we should have descended towards Dijon at 120 km/h.
But since we were so focused on our discussion, the train driver went the technically allowed 160 km/h. Also after going at 270 km/h for an hour 160 km/h seems really slow...
Finally we were 10 minutes early when were stopped in front of a red light in front of Dijon station, arrived on time and left for Lausanne with 5 minutes of delay.

This time on a cab ride in Switzerland from Biel/Bienne to Delemont the dispatch officer called us before we left Moutier and informed us that the train before us might have lost a buffer. This meant we had to drive the 10 miles between Moutier and Delemont in what we call "Fahrt auf Sicht / Marche à vue" in Switzerland, meaning max spead 30 km/h or slower in order to stop in front of an obstacle.
We lost about 10 minutes and didn't see any buffer on the tracks...

I hope you enjoyed my few little anecdotes...

I you have any questions about railways or are interested in more little personal anecdotes please let me know (Ask her or PM me)

I hope you'll find some interesting books,
Best regards,
Jonas

My brother in law has recently only retired from driving trains. First with Union Pacific, then with Amtrak. If he were to write a book it’d be perfect material for dozing off to sleep with. He use to say how it’s extremely fatiguing sitting for a few hours watching the rail ties tick off. He loved his job but also said it was challenging at times to keep his concentration.

I am not sure what exactly you are looking for in terms of content, but I can think of three books that might be of interest. Unfortunately,two were library items from many many moons age,so the titles and authors are long forgotten.

The first was written by the long time signalman at Challow signal box in Oxfordshire, whose name I very dimly recall as Adrian Vaughan.

The second was written by somebody who enter railway service either just before or early on in the Second War. He progressed from cleaner to fireman on suburban passenger trains,but his health gave way after the war,possibly as a result of poor diet and heavy manual labour,and he had to leave.

The third is tales of the Glasgow and South Western railway by David L Smith, which was published originally to include and expand on two articles published in the Railway Magazine , I think in the late 1920's or 30's.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Glasgow- ... B004SHZZKG

A niche publisher of railway books is (or probably now was ) David & Charles, and some of their output might be interesting to you.

Hi (again thanks!),

So just to say another many thanks for all the information and stuff and it is definitely all appreciated. Whilst I might not have time to look everything up in this instant I do fully intend to save the thread and do some investigation as time passes so many thanks again.

Also many thanks to Jonas for sharing the personal stories it is definitely appreciated and maybe despite my pretty bad French, German and Italian I may try and look you up on PM many thanks again. I mean how many times did I go from Baden to Flughafen Zurich to watch planes between 2003 and 2011 and it was pretty much always a good time (for me as a passenger/tourist anyway!).

But really they all seem pretty nice and many thanks again. For me even with flying too it's not really the hero books I go for. One of my faves which I think I read in one session the first time was "Flying the Big Jets" by Stanley Stewart and it is nothing more (but enough for me!) than a transatlantic hop from London Heathrow to Boston if I remember right.

Anyway with many thanks again as always, sometimes ANet really can show it's value at helping with things like this.

With many thanks again from here,

Ps762