Railthriller

[Gilbert B Norman]

I think this author has the makings to be "the John J. Nance (airthriller novelist) of the railroads".

http://www.railtale.com/chapter.html

[Aji-tater]

All in all a decent start. Despite the technical mistakes it DOES make you want to read more.

But the writer does leave some flaws. First, the bad guy sets up his lawn chair 20 feet from the broken rail. Even with the forward motion of the train, it's a reasonable bet he'd get wiped out himself as the derailment progressed.

And he tells of the conductor's face splatting the windshield hard enough to break the FRA certified glazing, just from hitting the broken rail. No way - at that point they'd feel a bump but nothing severe enough to break a window with his puss.

And third, even at 70MPH it does not seem all 50 autoracks would go over the bridge. As they derailed, there would be an accumulation of derailed cars that would act together with the brakes going into emergency. Yes, a lot of them might go over but I'm betting not all of them.

Even with those items [and there may be more I passed over] it's still a gripping tale. I hope no would-be terrorists are reading it as a text-book!

[Gilbert B Norman]

The bad guys, Mr. Agitator, could also get a few ideas from a John Nance novel as well.

There are times that I wish Mr. Nance had chosen to stick to air transport industry non fiction. His "Splash of Colors' (ISBN 0-688-03586-8) is indeed a worthy treatiste on the self-destruction of Braniff Airways.

[Cosmo]

That gave me shivers! I didn't even notice the mistakes-and I pulled apart "Under Siege II- Dark Territory" like it was cotton candy!
If you likre this, check out P. T Deuterman's "The Trainman."

[Cowford]

I don't know... after reading the first "accident" where Casey cuts a section of rail out and the investigation implies the conclusion is a broken rail??? And then a car gets from TX to Chicago in how many hours!?! Personally, I think Casey's worst act of terrorism is his copious use of cliches: "is that a packset in your pocket, or you just happy to see me?" That alone is grounds for lethal injection!