On the Rails: A Woman's Journey

Rating:
Summary: Sentiment-free memoir of a powerful and unusual woman.
Review: Gypsy Niemann, Ph.D., begins her memoir emerging from her mountain hermitage and flower-power era to become a "rail" -- railroaders call themselves "rails" because they're what the trains run on. It's a tough, unpredictable, competitive, and hard-drinking life that gets in the blood, pays well in booms, hardly at all in busts, and holds Gypsy in thrall for eight years. She follows the work throughout the West, lovers of both sexes through the heart's catacombs, and the call of her own core self through the haze of alcoholism to the harsh and difficult reality of the "dry." She draws gritty portraits of herself and her compadres and never condescends to explain railroad jargon, assuming the reader is as intelligent and restless as she is. I couldn't put it down

Rating:
Summary: Deserves wider readership
Review: On the Rails is about Linda Niemann's paradoxical life. A PhD in English, she turns to the railroad for a career. A tough strong woman, she openly shares her battles with alcohol, an unsupportive mother and an up-and-down love life. Her prose does credit to her scholarly degree. She evokes the life clearly, even brutally. You can almost smell the fresh tomatoes at the depot in California.

Niemann tells the story of a bygone era, when railroading was a craft and "rails" lived hard. It's the story of anyone whose career gets in their blood and becomes a life. As a career coach, I recommend this book for symbolism and lyricism but also for the
notion of choices made and roads taken. You'll remember Linda for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: revealing story of a woman surviving as a railroader
Review: This autobiography is from a woman who survived as one of the first female operating crew members on a failing railroad. It took incredible physical and emotional courage to do this. The best parts of the book are desriptions of rail operations and the railroaders and how the author dealt a dirty, dangerous, complex job while coping with an openly hostile work environment. As the railroad declined, employees were fired or shifted hundreds of miles on a month-to-month basis, which made it even tougher for her.

The book has it's problems too. Mostly it's told from a third person perspective; a little more dialog would have enlivened it. I got tired of reading about the author's addictions, family problems, and failed love affairs. Done right, some of this would be a big plus, but eventually it takes on a whining aspect, and I started skipping those pages. The best humor is in the glossary.

Recommended for those interested in the personal side of railroad operations and in women's struggle for fair treatment in the workplace.