Transatlantic Railwayman

Following Railway Boy and Railway Man Mitchell Deaver now describes in Transatlantic Railwayman his adventures as a former British Railways employee thrust into the midst of American railroading.

Mitchell Deaver begins a new career in 1989 with the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, where he learns the rudiments of American railroading: hand signals, radio use and how to couple and uncouple freight cars. Hundred-car coal trains are an important aspect of work on this short line.

In 1994 Mitchell Deaver moves to Conrail, where he trains to become a conductor on long-distance freight trains serving the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. He masters territory totalling 780 route miles that includes thirty-two different yards and that stretches through the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He relishes humorous exchanges with fellow workers. He becomes familiar with railroading terms of jitney, deadheading, footboard relief and thirty-day bump. He delights in railroad names of Karny, McCalls Ferry, Monty, Pomeroy, Port Road, Shellpot, Tillys and Trenton Line.

Ride the rails with Mitchell Deaver and share experiences that range from the puzzling and unsettling through the revealing and exhausting to the exciting and exhilarating-experiences that even include a revelation!