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A railway construction foreman whose glasses get destroyed ends up mis-directing the railroad construction into ponds, up trees, through barns, around cows, etc. The results turn out to be carnival-esque. [return][return]Shrug. A cute idea but in practice I was sort of annoyed. Why did the workers just follow the crazy instructions? Sure it's a children's story but it destroyed my suspension of disbelief! And practically all the characters were male (until the passengers at the end) -- workers, mayor, farmers, etc., which just makes me think the writer is sloppy and not very thoughtful. And I admit that I'm not much of a fan of Tedd Arnold's illustrations. So, not a big hit for me. ( )

A railway construction foreman whose glasses get destroyed ends up mis-directing the railroad construction into ponds, up trees, through barns, around cows, etc. The results turn out to be carnival-esque.

Shrug. A cute idea but in practice I was sort of annoyed. Why did the workers just follow the crazy instructions? Sure it's a children's story but it destroyed my suspension of disbelief! And practically all the characters were male (until the passengers at the end) -- workers, mayor, farmers, etc., which just makes me think the writer is sloppy and not very thoughtful. And I admit that I'm not much of a fan of Tedd Arnold's illustrations. So, not a big hit for me. ( )