Chauncey Del French (1890–1967)

Railroadman is the biography of Henry Clay French, a 19th / 20th Century boomer, written by his son. French started his railroad career in 1873 as a messenger/call boy on the Hannibal & St. Joe which became part of the Burlington (CB&Q) and ended in May 1930 when he retired from the Union Pacific Railroad as a Switchman-yardmaster. In between those years French found himself working a variety of jobs for a number of railroads in the western United States. The book is very well written, the word pictures and level of detail hold the reader’s interest, and, the descriptions of the various events in French’s life are matter-of-fact without overtones of tall tales. Railroadman is one of three books (the other two being Brownie the Boomer by Charles Brown and Boomer by Linda Niemann) which I would class as “must -reads” for anyone interested in first person accounts of working for the railroad. See "Quotations" in Common Knowledge for an example of the writing style. (Text Length - 298 pages, Total Length - 298 pages.)… (altro)