REVIEW: The Phantom Brakeman & Other Railroad Stories

The Phantom Brakeman and Other Railroad Stories
Author: Freeman Hubbard

I was lucky enough to come across a stack of old children's paperback books at a thriftstore recently. I love old books! They were only 10 cents each, so, of course, the entire stack came home with me. I put them on a shelf waiting for the right time. Just before New Years, I caught a cold...felt miserable. It was time to start reading my thriftshop treasures! This book was an enjoyable, fun read while I was snuggled under my warm blankets, sipping hot tea. 

There are six stories for children collected in this book. The stories were selected from an earlier anthology published by Freeman, The Train that Never Came Back and Other Railroad Stories (1952). From a mystery about a brakeman who seemingly returned from the dead to a teenage girl  who prevented a train wreck, the stories are varied and interesting. Although a bit dated (the book was published in 1969), the tales are age appropriate and entertaining. As an adult, I enjoyed reading them, too! My favorite is The Broken Lantern, a story of a girl who risked her life during a storm to warn a train that a bridge ahead had washed out. The stories are short and each one has at least one illustration.

One thing I love about old books is that sometimes they have interesting inscriptions, notes written in the margins, a note left inside....you never know what you might find. This particular book was....um....personalized by a young former owner. Faces drawn on a couple pages. A sports car running over a stick figure on another page. And just plain scribbles. Something about one day lavatory growth formula scrawled on the back cover. 

The grandma and bibliophile in me wanted to go straight to -- We DONT write in books! -- but the child who wrote all over the inside of this book is probably older than I am, and forgot all about this book....and the artwork inside....long ago. Old books have a history to them....and I love reading them and thinking about all the other people who read the pages before me. :) Sadly, this book is too damaged to keep. It's falling apart, and the artwork really makes it impossible to keep or give away. So I took a couple photos, wrote my review, and I'm sending this old book off to the library in the sky via the trash can. 

This book is long out of print, but I see copies of it quite frequently and it is available in digital format on openlibrary.org. For kids (and adults) who enjoy trains, railroads or just interesting stories from the past -- it's a fun read!! 

The author, Freeman Hubbard, was editor of Railroad Magazine and published many stories about railroads.