Customer Reviews

A Conductor Tells... Unauthorized Train Stories

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I really enjoyed Ken Lothridge's book! As a former brakeman, conductor and trainmaster, I can vouch for the authenticity of the book! He has a nice, natural style of storytelling. I highly recommend it. William J. Brotherton, author of "Burlington Northern Adventures: Railroading in the Days of the Caboose".

I just finished reading this book and really enjoyed all of the stories. Gritty and realistic, he tell it like it is as far as working for the RR, dealing with the people, co-workers, the unexpected things that happen everyday. I hope he does well with this book so that it might encourage him to put out "More Unexpected Train Stories".

"... like sitting around with an old head (Conductor) and shooting the breeze. Entertaining and relaxing," quote; TRAINS Magazine's Managing Editor, Kathi Kube

"pretty darn hard to put down once it's started." Margaret Ross

"... read the entire book cover to cover, having read a couple of stories two and three times, they were so entertaining and brought back some great memories." Tom Carter

"Thanks for the book Unauthorized Train Stories. It's GREAT. I am honored to be pictured with you." David Gunn, President and CEO (Amtrak)

As a newly hired conductor with a western railroad, I purchased this book to get some more insight on my new job. The stories that Mr. Lothridge tells are entertaining and great examples of the good and bad of railroading - however, I unfortuntately have to say that the book is filled with grammatical, spelling, and other errors. I seemed to find some type of error on every page, and it does take something away from the book.

Mr. Lothridge's writing, while mostly detailed and precise, sometimes jumps all over the place, and makes a general assumption that the reader has a fairly good knowledge of railroads before picking up the book.

The first chapter of the book describes the history of railroading in the United States, but doesn't go into enough details about the railroads that Mr. Lothridge worked for.

Even with all of the editing problems, this is a book that I would recommend for the content.

I expected a lot from this book, based on earlier reviews. While the stories are moderately enjoyable, the book as a whole is spoiled by an average of one error of spelling, grammar, or usage per page.

Mr Lothridge has some good stories about his experiences on the railroad but my enjoyment of this somewhat short book was runined by his poor writing. Along with spelling and grammar errors throughout, he has a tendency to wander in his storytelling in a most annoying way. What's needed here is a good ghost writer. Having said that, the short stories are interesting but I don't think the book is worth the price.