Ralph of the Roundhouse; Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man

In the railroad town of Stanley Junction, sixteen-year-old Ralph Fairbanks has one ambition: to become a railroad man like his father before him. Every spare moment finds him at the depot, delivering packages for the express agent, soaking up the thunder of engines and the smell of coal smoke, dreaming of the day he'll wear a conductor's badge instead of a schoolboy's cap. But Ralph's road to the rails is about to get rocky. A confrontation with the greedy businessman Gasper Farrington, whose schemes threaten everything Ralph's family holds dear, forces the boy from the comfortable world of trains and timetables into something far more dangerous. When he discovers a stowaway on a freight car and learns of another boy's tragic accident tangled up with his own family history, Ralph must grow up fast and decide what kind of man he wants to become. Written in the tradition of turn-of-the-century juvenile adventures, this is a story of ambition, integrity, and the rough romance of the railroad era, told with the kind of mechanical detail andplucky optimism that made boys' books from this era endure.