people who write about trains and the like

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trains are fascinating. soon as the new yorker publishes a couple of my shorts i'm going to write The Great Train Novel. but more on that later.

let's talk about the trains, the authors who write about them, and the books that do their best to contain then.

― station master, Monday, 21 March 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

Trains and... water clocks, garter belts, kerosene lamps, french letters, metronomes, hand-cranked adding machines, leeches!

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 21 March 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

i don't appreciate that, pal.

― it is not apPRECiated, Monday, 21 March 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

I DO appreciate it. That was awesome, Aimless!

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 21 March 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

And, if you're serious, Stationmaster, chapter 1 (or is it chapter one?) of If On A Winters Night A Traveler has some great train station stuff.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 21 March 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

that's true! but not TRAIN stuff, as i recall, or at least not much.

and i am always serious.

― conductor!, Monday, 21 March 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

If you wanted to know about writing about flying PLANES, then I would refer you to James Salter, The Hunters and Cassada.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 21 March 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

it would be good to bone up on that as well, obviously, as there are some obvious parallels. but - trains are better.

― IN A NETWORK OF LINES THAT ENLACE, Monday, 21 March 2005 20:34 (twenty years ago)

There's an excellent trainwreck in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake (which, aside from the trainwreck, I actually didn't think much of). And of course trains come into play in Anna Karenina...

― David Elinsky (David Elinsky), Monday, 21 March 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

In Dino Buzzati's Sessanta Racconti there's a short horror story about a train that knocked my socks off. It's a new, technologically-advanced express train that's expensive to ride; while it's on what I think is its maiden trip (if I remember correctly) there appears to be some disaster at the end of the line from which the entire population of the country is fleeing, but the express train won't slow down, it just keeps speeding on as the deserted surroundings grow more and more ominous...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 21 March 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

You should try The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen,lots about trains in that, or maybe the Thomas the Tank Engine series by W V Awdry, which are all about trains. Now, is that from the sublime to the ridiculous or from the ridiculous to the sublime?

― andyjack (andyjack), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 09:46 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, I've just thought about it again, and the stuff in The Corrections is about railways rather than specifically trains, but Thomas the Tank Engine is still cool.

― andyjack (andyjack), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 12:53 (twenty years ago)

Dude, this totally requires some hott agatha christie action!!!! Poirot + orient express = sweat dripping down my neck!!!

― jjordan, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

Do Magnetic Fields lyrics count?

― quincie, Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:22 (twenty years ago)

The entire "frame narrative" of Kreutzer Sonata takes place on a train. At first glance it seems an arbitrary choice, but I think it has great effect; trains are great places to hear long rambling stories from strangers, because you don't exactly have anywhere better to go. It also allows the teller to relate his story to a complete stranger, knowing they'll probably never meet again.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 24 March 2005 03:54 (twenty years ago)

the train pulled out of the long tunnel and into the snow country!

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 24 March 2005 03:56 (twenty years ago)

The first two pages of 'All The Pretty Horses' just break me: that train you feel out in shapes and breathings, speed pulling a vacuum around it, cuboid silence that rumbles earth into your bones.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 24 March 2005 04:21 (twenty years ago)

WELL i don't quite know what you are talking about but clearly i will have to read that, so maybe i will.

so far my reading list is:

murder on the orient express
first x pages of if on a winter's etc
first 2 pages of all the pretty horses
this italian thing
this other thing
thomas the tank engine maybe but that sounds strange and more about freight, i should've specified i suppose that i'm talking more abt passenger trains
those plane books probably

that's good but we could do better guys. some non-fiction woudl be appreciated.

however i realized that i'll hold off on the Great Train Novel until i publish my Great Great Novel, so we can get a blurb like this:

"Daniel Deforge [that's going to be my penname, pretty good huh], author of the award-winning "CASH MONEY", embarks on a startling return to formalism with his latest masterpiece. Don't miss this train!" - Jeffrey Lyons, WNBC-TV New York

― DANIEL DEFORGE, Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:24 (twenty years ago)

The Last Spike by PIerre Berton was a ripping piece of nonfiction about the building of the Canadian railway.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:17 (twenty years ago)

Okay, if Thomas the Tank Engine's not to your taste, how about Henry the Green Engine or Gordon and the High-speed Engine.

― andyjack (andyjack), Friday, 25 March 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

'The Necropolis Railway' and 'The Blackpool Highflyer' by Andrew Martin- whodunnits for the trainspotter in all of us, and damn good too, cleverly mocking Edwardian mores and hypocrisies.

― snotty moore, Saturday, 26 March 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

DUH YOU GUYS PAUL THEROUX! The Iron Rooster one. Yeah.

― n/a (Nick A.), Saturday, 26 March 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)

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