Railroad Voices

by Lina Bertucci and Linda Niemann

An evocative and honest portrayal in words and images of railroad life in America, "Railroad Voices" is a collaboration by two of the first women to work as railroad brakemen. Linda Niemann hired on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804732094
• ISBN13: 9780804732093
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 2.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 10.3" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Voices in the Night

Gritty, dusty, muddy, ballast-strewn dirt under foot. A coppery feeling in the mouth. Eyes strained and burning, almost too tired to open. Perpetual noise---the incessant squeaking, grinding, thumping and crashing of heavy, lumbering machinery. Break time, and the codgers slumping in straight-back chairs leaned against the wall are all snoring, smoking, or describing their latest sexual conquests. Oily, smoky air stinking of hot grease. The feel, smell, look and sound of heavy industry, all the same day after day, night after night. These are the sensations that Niemann and Bertucci's book leaves in the reader's mind.The title and even the subject matter notwithstanding, I hesitate to categorize this book as a volume on railroading. The impressions of the people and their work-lives that are featured in the prose and the photographs are descriptive of all those who labor in the blue-collar jobs of heavy industry. These railroaders have much in common with miners, steel mill workers, grain elevator operators, truck builders, and all the rest on whom our nation's economy depends.If we must, because of its focus, speak of it as a railroad book, let us be clear about what it is not: There are no ballads or wreck songs here, no folklore about John Henry or Casey Jones, no heroic histories of rail disasters, no financial analyses or statistics of ton-miles hauled or ruminations on the nostalgic era of steam locomotives. What we really have is a book of contemporary photographs, some taken with film and some painted with the brush of words. Both kinds of photos reveal the grass-roots operating railroader and the real, unembellished, and usually uninspiring environment in which he or she labors.What is the lasting value of this book? It is truly American sociology and history. Not the history of the corporate board room. Not the history of company economics. Not even the technological history behind roller bearings and the huge diesel-electrics that haul unit trains from Powder River coal fields to the ravenous furnaces of east coast electrical generating plants. The history in this book is both more basic and more essential, for it shows us the working conditions of the people who make the machine run, whose work enables the rail corporations to prosper, and whose personalities are shaped by the unsympathetic and unending tasks set for them.If, Gentle Reader, you react badly to harsh language, to untempered sexual remarks, or to photos including "explicit" centerfolds taped to a yardman's locker door, then perhaps this book is not destined for your reading list. On the other hand, if you find fascination (or perhaps reminiscence) in unexpurgated portrayals of blue-collar working Americans or if you merely wish to understand the demands of such work and how it shapes the people who perform it, then I believe that you will treasure this book as a most worthy addition to your library. Whether you shelve it with your books on sociology, heavy industry, Amer

Railroad voices - the real thing

This is one of the best railroad books I have read in my 30+ years in the railroad industry, and I found it difficult to put down. I have shared my copy with my railroad colleagues, including several women, who all said they enjoyed it immensely, and want their own copies.The two women have a gift for capturing the true essence of our industry. Ms. Niemann writes in the language of the trainmen's locker rooms, switch shanties and locomotive cabs, a mixture of railroad slang and profanity, but, that is the way it really is.Lina Bertucci's photos truly convey the sense of never-ending fatigue, boredom, grime, that was (is) part of railroading, then and now. (I also had the pleasure of knowing Ms. Bertucci and some of her female co-workers when they became the first women hired by the Milw RR for train service in the '70s. Those women fought some real barriers to be accepted in what had been a all-male environment.)

Just couldn't put it down

I've only worked for the railroad for 2 years but reading this book brings back memories of some of my trips. I was going to wait to read this book on the plane but I just couldn't put it down. Once you read the first page, you're hooked and you want to keep reading. The railroad, in a way, is like one big family and this book brings that to the reader.

Great highlight of a nontraditional job.

Niemann's quick patter, penetrating heartfelt look at the people around her, and brevity take us on an adventure that caters to my Tom Boy and captures my short attention span. I read it cover to cover in one day, thought about it for days later.

It's The Real Thing

As a 23 year railroader now on disability due to Multiple Sclerosis this book brought back in vivid detail some of my experiences. This is an insiders delight and let's the world reallyknow what's going on, on the Rails. I was always told never to just stand around on the job but to do something. This wonderful book does everything to open a hidden world to the public.