The Galloping Sausage: 150 Steam Railway Events and Stories

by Geoff Body, Ian Body

The formative years of Britain’s railway network produced a host of ideas, activities and characters, quite a few of which now seem not only highly unusual, but sometimes little short of ridiculous. Weird schemes and designs, extravagant behaviour, reckless competition and larger-than-life characters all featured in the genuine struggle of the railway system to evolve. While the dawning of regulation and common sense brought about more uniform and responsible practices, factors like the weather and the innate complexity of railway operation continued to produce a stream of nonstandard incidents and outcomes, from wild storms to unusual equipment. This book, by ex-railwaymen Geoff and Ian Body, captures over 150 entertaining snippets, stories, and strange and unusual facts from an ample supply of railway curiosities. - See more at: http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/inde...

192 pages, Paperback

Published January 4, 2016

Reviews

[Mitchell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Considering I'm a train fan this book was very boring and a real slog to read through (so much so I couldn't force myself to read more than half way through).

Most of the facts weren't very interesting and other more complex elements not explained enough. Sometimes facts just seemed to end abruptly without actually getting to the fact part.

I really would recommend avoiding this book, even for train fans.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. The authors obviously know an awful lot of in depth information about trains. However the book is lots of random, short sections. Even just sorting the sections into chapters to provide more organisation would have improved the book and moved it to 4 stars.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jolly little book this, with some interesting facts and stories about the Wild West that was the early incarnation of the railways. As a foil to the delightful Rev W Awdry books, this paints a picture of unfriendly rivalry, brinkmanship, and outright hostility between different railway companies: heads being broken, engines being trapped by others, blockades, sharp practice, etc.
As a preference I would have liked a bit more organisation either by location or timeline, or grouping related stories together as the book comes across as a grab bag of notes found in the bottom of a drawer; as such it’s a lucky dip kind of book with the stories seemingly arranged at random. I would have also liked some kind of reference system that allowed an interested lay person to find out more beyond the anecdotal. Yes, to give the authors their due there is a section on references right at the start, but these are in the general sense of ‘we talked to some friends and contacts’ or ‘we had a look through some other books’ without letting the reader know which of the stories are word of mouth, apocryphal, or genuine happenings. As such this is a good book to get a flavour of the perception of things, but perhaps not to share with others in case such stories actually are merely the flights of fancy created out of one too many ciders in the porters’ cabin or the guard’s brakevan.

[Mark Iliff · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best articles in this book paint vivid cameos of the disruption that the railways brought to a centuries-long settled order, which must have startled a populace not as used to disruptive technologies as we are today. The worst are reminiscent of being cornered by a maundering bore. It's almost as if, part-way through writing, the authors grew bored and lobbed their research notes in the post and went off to do something else.

What could have been an ideal lavatory book contains just too many inconsequential non-stories. It’s a good job they’ve put a little outline of a loco after each because there is often no other way of telling it has reached the end.

Oddly, the authors seem to assume black-belt gricer levels of railway knowledge: for example, in one story the name Thompson comes out of nowhere as if we all know who s/he is, while obscure place names are bandied about every few pages. Yet gricers are likely to know this stuff already.

An odd and disappointing read.

[Court Court · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty good collection of different events, some well known, some less so, nice to see the Mid Suffolk Light Railway get a mention though. Bought it while waiting for someone to arrive on a train and read half of it quite easily sat on the station platform bench, quite fitting.

A nice easy read you can dip in and out of, good with a nice beer.

[Virginprune · Rating 3 out of 5]

More engaging and better put together than you might expect. Still, one for the smallest room.

[Julian Wooldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a book that I would have brought. Fortunately given this book. Some interesting facts and a book you could pick and drop down at any time.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fairly innocuous collection of railway tidbits.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a bit stars - a bit too dry and traditional/historical, despite the very random ordering of the vignettes.

[Ryan Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that does exactly what it says on the cover. An enjoyable little read for any railway fan.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

A poor effort at a fact based book about the age of steam trains. Should have been great, but often the stories were too short or lacked any emotional impact. If you like this sort of book, don’t waste your time - seek outa proper history book instead.