Riding Toward Everywhere


William T. Vollmann - 2008
    He's investigated the causes & symptoms of humanity's obsession with violence (Rising Up & Rising Down), taken a personal look into the hearts & minds of the world's poorest inhabitants (Poor People), & now turns his attentions to America itself, to our romanticizing of freedom & the ways in which we restrict the very freedoms we profess to admire. For "Riding Toward Everywhere," Vollmann himself takes to the rails. His main accomplice is Steve, a captivating fellow trainhopper who expertly accompanies him thru the secretive waters of this particular way of life. Vollmann describes the thrill & terror of lying in a trainyard in the dark, avoiding the flickering flashlights of railroad bulls; the gorgeously wild scenery of the American West as seen from a grainer platform; the complicated considerations involved in trying to hop a moving train. It's a dangerous, thrilling, evocative examination of this underground lifestyle, & it's one of Vollmann's most hauntingly beautiful narratives. Questioning anything & everything, subjecting both our national romance & our skepticism about hobo life to his finely tuned, analytical eye & the reality of what he actually sees, he carries on in the tradition of Huckleberry Finn, providing a moving portrait of this strikingly modern vision of the American dream.

Pete the Cat's Train Trip


James Dean - 2015
    Pete even makes new friends and plays games on board. What a cool ride!Pete the Cat's Train Trip is a My First I Can Read Book, which means it's perfect for shared reading with a child. Fans of Pete the Cat will delight as Pete takes the grooviest train trip in this hilarious I Can Read adventure.

Train


Elisha Cooper - 2013
    Racing across the country, from coast to coast. All aboard!Climb aboard a red-striped Commuter Train in the East. Switch to a blue Passenger Train rolling through midwestern farmland. Then hop on a Freight Train, soar over mountains on an Overnight Train, and finish on a High-Speed Train as it races to the West Coast.Trains are moving. Fast and loud, colorful and powerful. Experience their sights, sounds, smells--and the engineers and conductors who make them go--as they roll across the country.

The Last Train


Gordon M. Titcomb - 2010
    The Last Train is a book for train lovers, American History buffs, and everyone else.

Choo-Choo School: All Aboard for the First Day of School


Amy Krouse Rosenthal - 2020
    After reciting their classroom rules — Work hard, play fair, be kind — it’s time for some math to get the wheels turning. Then everyone’s ready to climb a hill in gym (it’s good to blow off steam), sing songs in music (Flat Car is a bit off-key), and learn the whole alphabet, especially the letter R. In one of Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s last books, lighthearted verse portrays a world where train stations are classrooms, the conductor doubles as the teacher, and Boxcar is happy to hand out tissues to anyone who ah-choo-choos. Bright, energetic illustrations by animation artist Mike Yamada bring the whole clickety crew to rollicking life.

The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World... via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes


Carl Hoffman - 2010
    Indonesian Ferry Sinks.  Peruvian Bus Plunges Off Cliff.  African Train Attacked by Mobs.  Whenever he picked up the newspaper, Carl Hoffman noticed those short news bulletins, which seemed about as far from the idea of tourism, travel as the pursuit of pleasure, as it was possible to get.  So off he went, spending six months circumnavigating the globe on the world's worst conveyances: the statistically most dangerous airlines, the most crowded and dangerous ferries, the slowest buses, and the most rickety trains.  The Lunatic Express takes us into the heart of the world, to some its most teeming cities and remotest places: from Havana to Bogotá on the perilous Cuban Airways.  Lima to the Amazon on crowded night buses where the road is a washed-out track.  Across Indonesia and Bangladesh by overcrowded ferries that kill 1,000 passengers a year.  On commuter trains in Mumbai so crowded that dozens perish daily, across Afghanistan as the Taliban closes in, and, scariest of all, Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., by Greyhound.The Lunatic Express is the story of traveling with seatmates and deckmates who have left home without American Express cards on conveyances that don't take Visa, and seldom take you anywhere you'd want to go.   But it's also the story of traveling as it used to be -- a sometimes harrowing trial, of finding adventure in a modern, rapidly urbanizing world and the generosity of poor strangers, from ear cleaners to urban bus drivers to itinerant roughnecks, who make up most of the world's population.  More than just an adventure story, The Lunatic Express is a funny, harrowing and insightful look at the world as it is, a planet full of hundreds of millions of people, mostly poor, on the move and seeking their fortunes.

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America


Richard White - 2011
    Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the U.S. economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life. Their discriminatory rates sparked broad opposition and a new antimonopoly politics.With characteristic originality, range, and authority, Richard White shows the transcontinentals to be pivotal actors in the making of modern America. But the triumphal myths of the golden spike, robber barons larger than life, and an innovative capitalism all die here. Instead we have a new vision of the Gilded Age, often darkly funny, that shows history to be rooted in failure as well as success.

Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes


Ted Conover - 1984
    So, he decided to take a year off and ride the rails. Equipped with rummage-store clothing, a bedroll, and a few other belongings, he hops a freight train in St. Louis, becoming a tramp in order to discover their peculiar culture. The men and women he meets along the way are by turns generous and mistrusting, resourceful and desperate, philosophical and profoundly cynical. And the narrative he creates of his travels with them is unforgettable and moving.

Thomas and the Big Big Bridge


Marc Cerasini - 2001
    Thomas is excited, but some of the other engines are afraid of being so high. Can Thomas help them get over their fears–or will he become afraid, too?

A History of Capitalism According to the Jubilee Line


John O'Farrell - 2013
    We don't take the word 'nightmare' to mean that in the middle of a packed carriage they literally realised that they were wearing their pyjamas and then felt their teeth crumbling as their childhood maths teacher stood before them pointing and laughing, only it wasn't exactly the Tube because it was also the kitchen.'A Tube train is stuck underground because the economy above has collapsed. How has this happened and how will the passengers get out? Will they have to break the rules of Underground etiquette and actually speak to each other? In John O'Farrell's caustically funny short story, nothing is certain.The city is filled with stories. In twelve books, twelve writers tell their tales of London life, each inspired by a different Underground line. Some are personal, some are polemical; every one is unique.John O'Farrell, author of The Man Who Forgot His Wife, An Utterly Impartial History of Britain and Things Can Only Get Better, turns his comedic genius to the problem of capitalism, encapsulated in a Tube train full of passengers stuck underground – part of a series of twelve books tied to the twelve lines of the London Underground, as TfL celebrates 150 years of the Tube with Penguin.

I Like Trains


Daisy Hirst - 2021
    All aboard! But best of all is riding a real train to visit someone special--and playing with more trains there! Simple yet evocative prose and pictures make this a delightful read for the youngest train enthusiasts.

We Rode the Orphan Trains


Andrea Warren - 2001
    Then Charles Loring Brace, a young minister in New York City, started the Children’s Aid Society and devised a plan to give these homeless waifs a chance at finding families they could call their own. Thus began an extraordinary migration of American children. Between 1854 and 1929, an estimated 200,000 children ventured forth on a journey of hope. Here, in the sequel to Orphan Train Rider: One Boy’s True Story, Andrea Warren introduces nine men and women who rode the trains and helped make history so many years ago.

This Train


Paul Collicutt - 1999
    Using a refreshingly simple approach, Paul Collicutt has crafted the perfect book for young railroad enthusiasts. Each page features a vividly colored and detailed painting of a train, and the spreads show how they are different -- long and short, fast and slow, old and new. As a bonus, full-color endpapers feature captioned renderings of real-life engine models from all over the world that were the inspirations for the trains depicted throughout the book.

The Secret of the Night Train


Sylvia Bishop - 2018
    And when the mysterious Heartbreak Diamond goes missing, Max must find her feet in a whirling world of would-be diamond smugglers, thieves and undercover detectives. Will she discover the real diamond thief before they reach theirdestination? Or does the answer lie closer to home...

The Christmas Tree Who Loved Trains


Annie Silvestro - 2018
    A pine tree grew in the farthest corner of the tree farm on a small patch of land that bordered the train track. The tree loved trains. She loved to watch them ZOOM by on the tracks beside the tree farm. Her branches would ripple in the wind as the trains roared past.But one morning, when a little boy picks her to be his Christmas tree, she is uprooted and brought to a home far from the ZOOMING trains she loves…Beautiful art from Paola Zakimi brings to life this lovely Christmastime tale from Annie Silvestro, perfect for readers who love The Giving Tree and The Velveteen Rabbit.