Narrow Gauge Railway Scenes

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

For more than 30 years, Adolf Hungry Wolf has been collecting
memorabilia of narrow gauge railways. Some of the photographs date as
far back as the 1880s; others, many of which Wolf took himself, manage
to evoke the spirit of the last century, even though a modern car or
blundering tourist occasionally intrudes on the scene.

But this volume is more than a collection of pinup shots of long-gone
engines or glory shots of museum pieces. Wolf tries to capture the
everyday essence of life on these railways. Narrow gauge railwayss
generally serviced rural areas considered too rugged or isolated for
standard gauge trains. The author knows no nationality when it comes to
his subject. The collection starts in Mexico, stops in El Salvador, and
along the way passes through the United States, Canada, and
pre-Confederation Newfoundland.

Sometimes Wolf can get downright emotional about man’s inhumanity to
rolling stock. He writes of one victim, “Here’s an engine that might
still be running today . . . if the U.S. Army had not requisitioned it
during World War II and then worked it to death on the White Pass &
Yukon Railroad.” An unusual perspective on a war that caused the death
of 40 million people.

Like most railway buffs, Hungry Wolf often acknowledges his peculiarity
but does not apologize for it. He writes with humor about the trains and
about the people who yearn for the days of cold, bumpy cars and hot
cinders in the hair. The closest most of us will ever get to narrow
gauge is reruns of the Hooterville Cannonball, but even if you do not
know a Hogger from a Galloping Goose, this book is an engaging read.