Life Along the Tracks: Candid Stories from a Career Railroader

by Jim Providenza and Mike McLaughlin

As a boy in the early 1950s, Mike McLaughlin was a regular stowaway riding switch engines back and forth in Seattle, Washington. By the time he was in high school, he was hand-firing steam engines as an unofficial crew member. Obsessed with trains and destined for a life along the tracks, he started by digging ditches as a gandy and ended as a railroad and transportation consultant, but he never completely relinquished his shovel. His career spanned...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1638640300
• ISBN13: 9781638640301
• Release Date: October 2024
• Publisher: Basalt Books
• Length: 260 Pages