Railway by George Revill (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Railway by George Revill Frederick Gamst (bio) Railway. By George Revill. London: Reaktion Books, 2012. Pp. 288. $27. With literary flair, geographer George Revill creates a fresh, lyrical composition concerning the technology of railroads in world cultures, emphasizing those of the Anglophone sphere. Frequent illustrations taken from photographs, paintings, drawings, films, posters, and maps are cannily selected. They are a must-see, even apart from the engrossing narratives. Pictures range from Raymond Loewy on his Pennsy S1-class engine to a poster for John Ford's 1924 movie The Iron Horse. Four of five thematic chapters portray what one could call railscapes for the mind. First, Revill explores how railroads transformed from being an astonishing, perturbing technology to one that was prosaic and blended into the landscape. Second, he traces the processes through which railroads became a governmental instrument for internal administration and foreign incursions. Third, he explores the individual's railroad-fostered mobility and how it influenced everyday experiences and senses of the self. Fourth, he examines the intertwining of art, engineering, and commerce in the total railroad product. Railroads are at once historical heritage and hope for the [End Page 407] future. Last, he sketches a "cultural ecology" of railroads, from their role in the creation of the anthropocene of disrupted environments to their recent revival as green(er) alternatives to automobiles and aircraft. One of the book's strengths is its exploration of the inspiration that railroads gave the arts, including novels, poetry, paintings,music, film, and, informally, myths. From "high art," such as Charles Dickens and Albert Bierstadt, to staples of kids' popular culture such as Thomas the Tank Engine and Casey Jones, railroads loom large in the imagination. Expressions of the railroad across the arts relate to the technologically shaped modern society, which railroads helped create. Perhaps the greatest imprint of railroading on the development of modern culture is the standardization of precise time and the necessity of and requirement for timely behavior. Soaring metaphors, imagery, and possibilities resound in the fifth chapter. However, no narrative recognizes the unromantic railroading of numbing, sometimes hazardous, toil, for example on steam engines in summertime throughout the North American deserts and plains. There, after sixteen hours on duty, climbing down with limp muscles off the scorching monster-machine, a "rail"mumbles, "I'm so hungry that I can hardly keep my eyes open." Today in the United States, harsh reality finds conservative budget hawks obstructing passenger rail projects and the Union Pacific demanding $1 billion from cash-starved Amtrak for restoring the frequency of one train, the Sunset Limited, from three times a week to daily. The Obama administration put legal teeth into requirements for on-time performance by freight railroads in dispatching passenger trains; the carriers protested to Congress and had the administration apologize for its "mistaken," now withdrawn, regulation. Beyond the above views from the footplate, George Revill deftly produces a remarkable cultural tapestry of the railroad, one with many nuanced strands of insight. It includes ideas from innumerable depicters of railroads, from John and Alan Lomax to Henry Thoreau. In all, Revill's book is a precious, memorable contribution to those interested in railroads and in the rail foundations of modern society. [End Page 408] Frederick Gamst Dr. Frederick Gamst is a retired member of Tropico Division 660 of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. He once fired steam and has worked for, researched about, and consulted regarding railroads since his "student trips" in May 1955. Copyright © 2013 The Society for the History of Technology