Bristow Resident to Release New Book this Summer

By Cindy Brookshire

Write by the Rails, Prince William Chapter of the Virginia Writers Club

After several years of research, Last Train from Cleveland: The Story of a Railyard Engineer (Days of Steam Books, 2013) has finally left the station. 

The journey has been a long one for Bristow author Burnett “Chip” Deyerle III. 

The book officially launches September 7-8, 2013 at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, in the Norfolk & Western railyards where the story began. The book is available in paperback and e-version (Kindle) through Amazon.com.

Last Train from Cleveland chronicles the life of a railyard engineer on the Norfolk & Western railroad in the mid-1920s. It was a time in railroad history, the fabled days of steam, when railroad workers, labor unions and railroad management clashed while men and women toiled daily under unusually harsh conditions.

Changes in US transportation related to labor in that period just after World War I and the roaring 1920s came at a cost, not just to the employees, but to their resourceful railroad families in terms of benefits.

This story focuses on the day-to-day life of a railyard engineer, his trials and tribulations and the many life factors he dealt with at work and at home when steam was king.

Experience the constant struggle to balance home life with work life as seen through the eyes of “BL” and “Mae” taken from real life letters and correspondence during that period