Fiction book recommendations for transport enthusiasts

[GordonT]

A suggestion from me would be "Martin Harbottle's Appreciation of Time" by Dominic Utton.
The blurb reads "The funny, heartfelt and engrossing story of one man's attempt to take a stand on behalf of all commuters."

 

[3141]

I suppose the most obvious one would be The Railway Children by E. Nesbitt. I think I recall an early post-Second World War Enid Blyton story, possibly one of the Famous Five series, in which children investigate a train definitely not in the public timetable that emerges at night from a tunnel, which is being operated by a Black Market gang. I haven't thought of any others. There'd be scope for a fictional story about a serious incident, probably a crash, and a detective working out who pulled the wrong lever or whatever. But such things have already been covered in reality by books such as LTC Rolt's Red for Danger.

 

[12C]

The National Rail Timetable?

 

[davetheguard]

The Inspector Vignoles series of books by Stephen Done - a fictional railway detective. Last I heard there's 12 books in total - I've bought them all.

Not the fastest paced books I've ever read, but the enthusiast author has quite a lot of railway historical knowledge and he really re-creates a feeling how things were in the 1940s & 1950s.

 

[75A]

The obvious one from me would be the 2024 Labour Party Election Manifesto!

 

[Gloster]

The obvious one from me would be the 2025 Labour Party Election Manifesto!

Are we going to have another election next year?

 

[McRhu]

Jennie by J.B. Snell. The story of a Welsh Narrow Gauge railway and a family who work the line from its beginning to its rather sad end. Very loosely based on the Tal-y-Llyn. It's out of print as far as I know, but widely available in good condition, second hand. A really excellent little book.

 

[dcbwhaley]

Jennie by J.B. Snell. The story of a Welsh Narrow Gauge railway and a family who work the line from its beginning to its rather sad end. Very loosely based on the Tal-y-Llyn. It's out of print as far as I know, but widely available in good condition, second hand. A really excellent little book.

I have just picked up a book in the local charity shop.
It is entitled "The Iron Horse" by Edward Marston.
It is one of a series set in the 1850s and featuring "The Railway Detective" -DI Robert Colbeck

 

[GordonT]

King Solomon's Carpet is a novel by Barbara Vine, pseudonym of Ruth Rendell. It is about the London Underground and the people frequenting it.

 

[dcbwhaley]

King Solomon's Carpet is a novel by Barbara Vine, pseudonym of Ruth Rendell. It is about the London Underground and the people frequenting it.

And dear old Agatha: "Murder on the Orient Express" and "The Mystery of the Blue Train"

 

[Albaman]

I haven't read it but " The Dead Man's Pedal " by Alan Warner may be of interest.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Dandy Hart by Ellis Hamilton – AbeBooks

Dandy Hart by Hamilton Ellis and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.co.

www.abebooks.co.uk

Quite an old book - but an enjoyable read ....

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Dec 2024 ==

Jennie by J.B. Snell. The story of a Welsh Narrow Gauge railway and a family who work the line from its beginning to its rather sad end. Very loosely based on the Tal-y-Llyn. It's out of print as far as I know, but widely available in good condition, second hand. A really excellent little book.

Agree - fine book - a very good read......

 

[GCRS]

Freeman Wills Crofts was a Golden Age writer of detective novels and his books often revolved around railways. Death of a Train and Death on the Way are two good examples. His books are known for being a little mundane as they generally involve his detective slowly solving the crime via a series of logical deductions rather than anything more exciting, but they're worth a read.

 

[Railsigns]

I haven't read it but " The Dead Man's Pedal " by Alan Warner may be of interest.

That's currently on my bookshelf, next in line to be read. I knew the author long ago when we were children/teenagers.

 

[Magdalia]

And dear old Agatha: "Murder on the Orient Express" and "The Mystery of the Blue Train"

And "4.50 from Paddington", which was adapted for TV with railway scenes filmed on the Severn Valley Railway.

I have been given "Strangers on a Train" by Patricia Highsmith for Christmas so I don't want any spoilers.

 

[Gloster]

One non-English book is La Bête Humaine by Émile Zola, usually given in English as either The Beast in Man or The Beast Within. I read it shortly after leaving the railway and was interested to note that one of the main characters, a deputy stationmaster, would always be punctilious about doing his job despite his life descending into horror.

Freeman Wills Crofts, who has been mentioned above, was a railway engineer so railway details seem to be correct: he had a habit of sending his detective all over the place by train. One favourite is Sir John Magill’s Last Journey, parts of which are set on the old Dumfries-Stranraer ‘Port Road’, which was also used by Dorothy L Sayers in Five Red Herrings and, more briefly, by John Buchan in The 39 Steps.

One other is Canon Victor Whitechurch who had a railway detective called Thorpe Hazel. The good canon had a better knowledge of railways than many authors, but could still go awry; like many of his contemporaries (but not Freeman Wills Crofts) he had a thing about strikers and Bolsheviks.

 

[BazingaTribe]

One non-English book is La Bête Humaine by Émile Zola, usually given in English as either The Beast in Man or The Beast Within. I read it shortly after leaving the railway and was interested to note that one of the main characters, a deputy stationmaster, would always be punctilious about doing his job despite his life descending into horror.

Oh yes, that's an amazing book. Zola was a captivating writer -- of course I read it in English but the source material is rich enough and the translations gritty enough that it really blew my mind after years of having to read rather turgid 19th century English prose at school. I read it as a teenager after ditching English at A-level, and there was also a TV adaptation in the late 1990s that set the action at Haywards Heath rather than in France (just like they transposed the Ladies' Paradise to a Newcastle department store a decade or two later).

Colston Whitehead wrote a book with the premise that what if the Underground Railroad that spirited escaped slaves from south to north in the antebellum US was a real railway, but it didn't really do much with the idea. We read it for a geek book club and a friend wrote a short story version which played up the actual railway elements.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase involves a train ride at the beginning. The narrative makes the train sound like a drawing room on wheels, and I can actually confirm that when you're a small child like the protagonists, trains can seem bigger than they actually are. My first memory of a train was going from Workington to Stranraer in the early 80s; my sister was a baby so it was 1982. I was three, and the image is of me sat on the floor and my mum looming above me and it just being another comfortable place to sit and do whatever I used to do back then. So reading the WoWC brought back that kind of mindset where everything just is bigger than it becomes when you're an adult.

I can't think of any other books set on trains but I must mention my favourite Mickey Mouse cartoon -- as fiction in a different medium -- where he's trying to hide Pluto and get to Pomona before the conductor finds out he's got a dog on board. I haven't seen it in years but it stuck with me as a metaphor for my life -- trying to cope with all the crud life flings at you, particularly when you're neurodivergent, only to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. (Because Mickey gets caught and thrown off the train -- at his destination .)

 

[GordonT]

A suggestion from me would be "Martin Harbottle's Appreciation of Time" by Dominic Utton.
The blurb reads "The funny, heartfelt and engrossing story of one man's attempt to take a stand on behalf of all commuters."

I didn't realise until now that the fictional representation of "Martin Harbottle" was based on Mark Hopwood the MD at Great Western.

 

[Calthrop]

With the "for transport [as opposed to strictly-railway] enthusiasts" wording -- there occurs to me, a fiction series about which I have previously posted on the Forums (thread Railway Books Discussion, sub-forum Memorabilia, Media and Publications): the "Swann Saga" by R.F Delderfield. This author is one of a fair number, my own attitude to whom can be described as "love / hate": for me, his writing style varies between good / competent, and hack-type-cringingly-awful; but I'll admit that he had some good ideas -- outstanding for me, this "Swann" caper of his.

Premise of the series: Mr. Swann, as a British Army officer in the historical episode of the Indian Mutiny: becomes in course of same -- precisely how, perhaps best not enquired into too closely -- seriously rich. Shortly after, he resigns from the Army; and returns to England and embarks on an unconventional commercial undertaking. Uses his wealth to start off a firm with the purpose of offering, Great-Britain-wide, horse-drawn freight transport by road; in ways which manage to do a modicum of competing with, and financially undercutting, the relatively new mode of rail-borne transport which is carrying almost everything before it. (These doings are freight-only: by circa 1860, the passenger stage-coach has to be reckoned dead and gone -- other than on Exmoor; until some twit there, inaugurates an ineffective and pointless two-foot-gauge rail line ...)

Our hero enjoys a fair amount of success in this endeavour -- roping in sundry equine-road-transport fellow-die-hards; challenging the near-supremacy, of what these stalwarts describe as "the gridiron", or "they bliddy tea-kettles". (The books also tell of a certain amount of co-operation to mutual benefit, between rail transport and Swann horse-drawn same.) I personally, re Delderfield's literary style: as above, find that his writing here as elsewhere, veers between OK, and squirm-inducingly dreadful -- but if one can endure the latter -- I reckon the Swann Saga's basic idea, rather splendid. With the general appeal of the "underdog" -- it would seem difficult for one to do other than cheer for this magnificent loony eccentric and quixotic entrepreneur, and his project.

The series comprises three books: chronologically, God Is An Englishman; Theirs Was The Kingdom; and Give Us This Day.