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A review by dc60
The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin
3.0
I didn't expect much of this book when I came to it. I had heard the author talking about railways and I knew a little about the Necropolis Railway, so I thought it would be a mildly interesting diversion. I greatly underestimated it...
The basic story is that in 1903 a young Yorkshire lad goes to London to take up a job with a railway company, a job he hopes shall one day lead him to driving the trains. He is a complete railway enthusiast, and views trains and all their accoutrements through distinctly rose-tinted glasses. He soon finds that the chance acquaintance which led him to the job has in fact dropped him in the thick of a very tense situation; there has been at least one mysterious death recently, and the rest of the Nine Elms work force views him with deep suspicion as a potential bosses' spy.
The mystery develops, and the sense of real threat facing the green youth, Jim Stringer, is made to feel tense enough, but it isn't the mystery which raises this book out of the ordinary. The author has done a remarkable job in bringing to life the railways at the start of the 20th Century. The characters speak, especially Stringer (the narrator), wholly in what seems to be slang appropriate for the era. In the wide-eyed youth whose viewpoint we share, we get a view of the railway as exciting, new technology, the greatest of achievements and the forefront of the wave of progress carrying humanity forward into the new century. This is still a largely gaslit world, though electrification is encroaching, even some of the Underground railways are electrified; but for transport of people and goods over long distances this is the unchallenged age of the great steam engines, and the excitement of being near such awesome, advanced machinery is conveyed perfectly with never a false note struck.
It is worth reading solely to feel the past come alive; it doesn't hurt that there's a decent mystery and a real threat to the protagonist pulling you along through the grubby environs of Waterloo and Nine Elms. I shall probably read more in this series, to see if the quality is sustained.
The basic story is that in 1903 a young Yorkshire lad goes to London to take up a job with a railway company, a job he hopes shall one day lead him to driving the trains. He is a complete railway enthusiast, and views trains and all their accoutrements through distinctly rose-tinted glasses. He soon finds that the chance acquaintance which led him to the job has in fact dropped him in the thick of a very tense situation; there has been at least one mysterious death recently, and the rest of the Nine Elms work force views him with deep suspicion as a potential bosses' spy.
The mystery develops, and the sense of real threat facing the green youth, Jim Stringer, is made to feel tense enough, but it isn't the mystery which raises this book out of the ordinary. The author has done a remarkable job in bringing to life the railways at the start of the 20th Century. The characters speak, especially Stringer (the narrator), wholly in what seems to be slang appropriate for the era. In the wide-eyed youth whose viewpoint we share, we get a view of the railway as exciting, new technology, the greatest of achievements and the forefront of the wave of progress carrying humanity forward into the new century. This is still a largely gaslit world, though electrification is encroaching, even some of the Underground railways are electrified; but for transport of people and goods over long distances this is the unchallenged age of the great steam engines, and the excitement of being near such awesome, advanced machinery is conveyed perfectly with never a false note struck.
It is worth reading solely to feel the past come alive; it doesn't hurt that there's a decent mystery and a real threat to the protagonist pulling you along through the grubby environs of Waterloo and Nine Elms. I shall probably read more in this series, to see if the quality is sustained.