Mark if you are interested in knowing what it was like to be a crew member on a work train you might want to consider the following:
Call the Big Hook
In the book Dougherty describes his promotions to fireman, engineer, and road foreman and uses the narrative to gradually introduce the reader to the issues of train wrecks, the many ways they can occur and the ways and means the mechanical department deals with them. The train wrecks, their aftermath and the clean-up efforts include descriptions of historical Rio Grande wrecks and wrecks the author personally worked on during his tenure as head of the repair crews.
In the Ditch
The book is a description of railroading from the perspective of the Pacific Great Eastern’s Wrecking Foreman (Mr. Stathers) and his crew.
For each wreck Mr. Stathers first paints a vivid word picture for the reader which gives a background description of the area where the wreck occurred, the circumstances leading up to the wreck, a description of how he and his crew got to the wreck site, and what they found when they got there.
He follows this narrative with interesting descriptions of how the wrecking crew went about their on-site work. His descriptions of the cleanup are very detailed and are often accompanied by drawings and pictures.
