Introduction:
In Your Blood
The story of the fireman who thought he hated his life and scrimped and saved to buy a farm, only to realize that he was miserable until he went back to his engine, says it all. Like the sea, railroading gets in your blood. Its members are subject to practices, hardships, discipline, rituals, and slang that set them apart from ordinary walks of life. Take this Reading Co. crew, circa 1890. The natty conductor wears the gloves he has just used to turn around the engine on an "armstrong" (manual) turntable. He is flanked by a brawny brakeman and flagman. The engineer has dismounted from his steed and leans confidently against the steam cylinder. The fireman is perched on the tender apron. Unnamed in the photo and unknown to us today, the men look directly at the camera.

The articles in this section look directly at the lives of railroaders. These lives range from the ranks of conductors who have commanded trains since the Age of Jackson to the engineers on a lonely badlands district, some operating managers, and a trio of almost forgotten moguls. Mostly about men but also a few women, these stories give us a renewed sense of an enterprise that has rolled across the decades big, bulky, complicated, tradition-bound, changeable, but always fascinatingly human.   —Mark Reutter