Herbert Stitt

From the time the author saw his first steam engine he knew his path through life was going to be that of the iron road viewed from the engineer’s side of the cab of a locomotive. The book opens with a brief history of his family, their emigration from Ireland to Canada in 1907, the various moves the family made as their father changed places of work, the beginning of World War I, and the author’s first employment by the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1915 as an engine wiper at 16 cents an hour for a 10 hour day. In the chapters that follow the author provides descriptions of his first job as a fireman, short vignettes of some of the men he worked with and a brief description of his time in service during World War I.

This is followed by a chapter filled with descriptions of family/personal railroad events covering the immediate post WWI period to the beginnings of the Great Depression. There is an interlude of 10 pages of photographs and then the narrative resumes with the author’s work on the railroad during the depression. This chapter is followed by chapters titled “Steam Addiction” – an interesting essay on the author’s fascination with steam locomotives, “Snowplowing” -stories concerning that activity, “Anecdotes” - a general collection of short accounts of interesting incidents, “Tragedy” – an account of his hitting a little girl standing in the middle of the railroad track and some descriptions of other accidents he witnessed. The last two chapters are “Reflections” and “Retirement”. Their titles summarize their contents.

The book is very short but it is very well written and I would recommend it to anyone interested in reading personal accounts of railroad life. (Text length – 88 pages, Total length – 103 pages)… (altro)