The Secret Life of Railroaders

Bruce K. Filson was a freelance writer and critic residing in Chesterville, Ontario.

Jim McLean records the facts, the lingo, the ins and outs, and the daily working life of Canadian railroad workers in this, his first book. The poems are not at all poetic, except in the sense that very spare prose and brief dramatic monologue in authentic parlance written in choppy stanzaie form has come to be called poetry. Also, verse is sometimes resorted to. Even so, that distinction should not be understood as derogatory: the style suits the content. The Secret Life of Railroaders is a good read.

In these 41 pieces, we learn what it’s like to work “in the yards,” to “clean dope” (not what you think), and to work in a special train wreck clean-up crew. Far from pretentious, the stories tell it like it is, often in an amusing way. There are found poems, seven photos, and the various accents of immigrants working on the railroad talking hockey or shop talk — all to put you into the life of a railroader. You learn everything you wanted and didn’t want to know about railroad work, but it’s worth every page.

In the few poems at the end of the book, McLean turns to the subject of poetry and poets. It’s there that you get the feeling he may be a one-track poet once and forever.