Ralph in the Switch Tower; Or, Clearing the Track
Picture a young man alone in a switch tower, high above the rails, holding lever and life in his hands. That's Ralph Fairbanks on his first day. The trains thunder through on parallel tracks, and every flick of a switch means the difference between safe passage and disaster. But Ralph's problems multiply when his old nemesis Mort Bemis appears, recently fired for causing a wreck and looking for revenge. As if that weren't enough, a tiger escapes from a passing circus and takes refuge near the tower. Now Ralph must keep the trains running, outsmart a man who wants to destroy him, and survive an encounter with a beast that doesn't care about schedules. Written in the early 20th century, this is pure boys' adventure fiction: no-frills, fast-moving, and utterly unpretentious. It delivers what young readers of that era craved - a hero, a villain, a beast, and the constant thrum of iron rails beneath every scene.
