Possibly inviting here, counsel on the advisability of my getting a life; however -- in this thread's "sub-department" of rail-related matters in essentially "civilian" fiction -- I have lately been reading a couple of novels by the Australian author Colleen McCullough: probably best-known for her novel The Thorn Birds, and her historical-novel cycle set in Ancient Rome (she isn't E.M. Forster / Proust / Tolstoy, but her stuff is in my view competently written, and good fun). As I've mentioned previously in this thread: I'm inclined to the impression -- highly un-PC, no doubt -- that re fiction, female authors have a greater tendency than male ones, to get incidental railway-related details wrong -- the old meme "girls don't like, and are bored by, trains, and don't understand boys' fascination with them". Per the above-mentioned works, though -- I get the feeling that our Colleen is pretty much on the money concerning rail matters when they come up in her novels; and describes such, seemingly with considerable gusto, and a fair bit of technical gen -- pondering prompted, as to whether she's genuinely something of a railfan.
The novels mentioned are set in the author's home state of New South Wales, in different periods. One, The Touch, covers the last three decades of the 19th century; its hero, a self-made gold magnate / industrialist who becomes phenomenally rich from his gold -- source thereof, a mountain area a bit under 100 miles west of Sydney. 1875 has him inaugurating a hundred-mile private rail line linking his fiefdom with the nearest point of the New South Wales Government Railways' system -- genesis and equipment of the railway, told of in impressive and by me, un-faultable detail. One very minor "bloomer" detected elsewhere -- a decade onward, the hero and his womenfolk (complicated situation, with which the narrative makes much play) are sumptuously entertaining various political / commercial bigwigs whom they wish to get "on side", with a magnificent and no-expenses-spared dinner party: including "the sorbet, made from pineapples shipped by refrigerated van from Queensland..." -- only, this banquet is taking place in 1885. At that date, "refrigerated van" obviously means a rail vehicle (such rolling stock first introduced to the world in 1877): but as for such a vehicle getting from Queensland to New South Wales -- physical connection between the two colonies' rail systems did not come to be, until 1888 -- border and break-of-gauge point Wallangarra. (One takes it that the different-gauges factor needn't be in itself, a "killer" problem -- interchangeable bogies for goods stock?) But literally "refrigerated van" all the way in '85: no -- smallish refrigerated containers transportable by road (ox-carts?) and/or sea, would have had to be resorted to.
The above is admittedly an absurdly trivial nitpick. The author drops a somewhat bigger clanger in the other novel, Bittersweet. Its setting is a "railway town" on the Sydney -- Melbourne main-line route: I suspect, a fictionalised version of the real Goulburn. One of the main characters truly is that rare bird, a female railway enthusiast (in most respects, she is actually rather a twit) -- fascinated by the local ever-active array of steam locos. Her watching the comings and goings of these at the station / locoshed are recounted: with mention of her delight in the NSWGR express locos -- classes specified, C36 and C38. However -- the date of this is 1926: accurate (just) for the C36 4-6-0s -- class first entered service in 1925; but the C38 Pacifics were not introduced until 1943 !
I realise that my above pettinesses, are just that; and that the inaccuracies don't interfere in the slightest, with the novels' general content. If I were tempted to write to Ms. McCullough c/o her publisher, pointing out these errors -- I'd be out of luck anyway: she died in 2015. And had she still been with us; she definitely strikes me as a forthright and robust Aussie -- I'd expect a response along the lines of, "You can just go and do one, sport -- I've got no use for your flamin' nonsense". I can see her point ... at all events, I found the books -- railway "doings" therein, a pleasant bonus -- a pretty good read.
?
