Way back when your greatgreat- grandparents were kids—before the invention of computers and televisions—steam engines thundered across miles of railroad track like iron horses racing toward distant pastures.

Railroad workers (or rails) spoke their own colorful language. For instance, one rail might have said, “When the hogger saw the northbound rounding the curve, he knew they were in for a cornfield meet. So he told his crew to join the birds.” What he meant was, “When the engineer saw the northbound train heading straight for his train, he knew they were going to crash head-on. So he told his crew to jump!”

It took all kinds of rails to keep a freight train running. Ashcats shoveled coal into the firebox. Hoggers drove the giant locomotives. Car toads repaired train cars, such as hoppers, cans, and reefers. Every car in the train had to be in top condition before the herders coupled them to the locomotive. The mud hop nailed numbers to each car. He shuffled the deck and put all the 89s on track 76 bound for Los Angeles and all the 58s on track 65 bound for Salt Lake City.

The brakemen were some of the hardestworking men on the train. Before 1860, brakemen climbed on top of moving trains to set hand brakes. By 1926, when Jingle the Brass takes place, air brakes had replaced hand brakes. But you’d still find brakemen riding out when the train went around curves. This was a good chance to see the whole train and inspect the cars for problems.

The head man rode in the locomotive. When the train came to a fork in the tracks, the head man pulled the switch to be sure his train took the correct fork. He called it bending the iron. The end man rode in the caboose. He protected the rear of the train. If the train was behind schedule, the engineer signaled the rear brakeman with his whistle. Remember, in 1926 there were no radios or cell phones! The end man threw red flares on the track to warn following trains.

Writing Jingle the Brass
I like to give my friend Annie credit for Jingle the Brass. She visited me in California in 1996 and I took her to see the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. (If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth it!) I saw an exhibit called “A Far Cry From Hairpins: Women, Work & Railroads” celebrating women who worked on the railroad from World War I through today. That exhibit gave me an idea for a novel for older readers, but I didn’t know much about the subject.

When I want to find out more about something, I head to the library! Lucky for me, the California State Railroad Museum has its own library with everything from books about the railroad to train photos to old newsletters to timetables. It even has menus from old dining cars. (Did you know that in 1908 a glass of lemonade was only 15¢?) To a writer, the museum and library were like a toy store and a candy store all rolled into one. In fact, I learned so much from the library that I couldn’t possibly put it all into Jingle the Brass.

After my library work, it was time to find some experts to talk to. People at the railroad museum helped me again by introducing me to a retired Southern Pacific “hogger” named Al Shelley. Dressed in overalls and a plaid work shirt, Al looked like he’d just stepped off a locomotive. He took me on a tour of the old Southern Pacific yard in Sacramento. I recorded everything he said on tape and took pictures of buildings, switches, tracks, the turntable, and the depot. Throughout the interview, Al used words like “mud hop” and “number snatcher” and “skipper” and “bending the iron.”

After listening to Al, I knew I was writing the wrong book. I put aside my novel and wrote Jingle the Brass.

Unfortunately, the story didn’t flow from my fingertips perfectly the first time. (The first draft is always the hardest for me. I’d much rather revise.) My first draft was called H Is for Hogger and was an alphabet book. But it was too boring. I needed a story with characters, so I started brainstorming. I figured the best part of slang is learning to use it in conversation, so I invented the engineer in Jingle the Brass who is fluent in “railroad- speak.” He needed someone to talk to, so I invented the kid. And they needed to do something. A rail journey down the main line was the obvious choice.

Putting the Book Together
During school visits, kids always ask me how I felt when I heard Jingle the Brass was going to be a real book. Imagine stepping up to the plate in a baseball or softball game. Your team is down by three runs with two outs and the bases loaded at the bottom of the ninth. The pitcher sends you a fastball. Your bat connects, and you hear a satisfying CRACK as the ball rockets over the heads of the outfielders. A grand slam home run! You race around the bases, and everyone in the stands is on their feet. Selling a book feels a lot like hitting a grand slam home run!

My editor, Wes, works for a big publishing company in New York City. It was his job to lead the team of people who made Jingle the Brass. First Wes and I changed some of the words and added a few more to make the story better. Then he picked artist Michael Chesworth to draw the pictures. Michael lives across the country from me in Massachusetts.

I sent Wes and Michael all of the pictures I had taken of the railroad yard. Al Shelley also took me inside the Union Pacific 4466 at the California State Railroad Museum. I took more pictures and sent them to Wes and Michael. The engine in Jingle the Brass is modeled after the 4466.

Michael drew several sets of sketches until he was satisfied that his pictures matched my words. But he didn’t stop there. Michael added his own touches to Jingle the Brass to tell the story that I didn’t specify with words. For example, Joe, the ashcat, is Michael’s creation. If you read the words carefully, you’ll notice that I never describe Joe. I also never say the kid in the story is a boy. Michael also thought carefully about how to make you think it was 1926 in Jingle the Brass. I never say the year in the text of the story, but Michael shows you the year in several ways. One of them is the palette of colors he uses. The muted reds and browns give Jingle the Brass an old-fashioned feel. Can you find others?

Jingle the Brass took me one year to write. After 17 publishers turned it down, one publisher finally accepted it. Then four long years lapsed from the time it was accepted for publication until it appeared on bookstore shelves. During this time, Michael made his sketches and paintings and the book was printed and bound. Patience and perseverance are important characteristics for writers. But the long wait was worth it, because my story gives me the opportunity to meet readers like you. Please visit me at www.patriciamnewman.com and we can talk some more.

Patricia Newman is the author of Jingle the Brass (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004), a Junior Library Guild Selection recommended by several reviewers including Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. She has also written for National Geographic Explorer, Spider, Appleseeds, Boys’ Quest, and Storyworks. Her profiles of other children’s authors have appeared in regional parenting magazines. Visit her website at www.patriciamnewman.com.

Parents! Looking for Lesson Plans?
Jingle the Brass is a terrific fit for the following curriculum themes. Activities and worksheets span all areas of the curriculum.

• Transportation
• Trains
• Transcontinental Railroad
• Industrial Revolution
• Intergeneration Communication

Reader’s Challenge

• Pick up one of your favorite picture books.
• Read the words without looking at the pictures.
• Look at the pictures and figure out what the illustrator added to the story.

Jingle the Brass Writing Activity
Now it’s your turn! Write a short story about a railroad adventure that you and a friend have in 1926 (the same year Jingle the Brass takes place). Try to use as many of the “Talk Like a Rail” words as you can (see the sidebar at right).
A few tips!

• Stories have a beginning, a middle, an end, and use paragraphs.
• Use active verbs like “He strolled” instead of “He was walking.”
• Create a problem for your character to solve. This makes the story more exciting.
• Dialogue helps us get to know your characters. Make their words sing! We need to find out about their personalities by what they say.
• Do a little research on the time period—there were no computer games or cell phones in 1926!

Talk Like a Rail

ashcat:

A fireman on a coalburning engine

bending the iron:

To throw a switch so a train will take one fork in the tracks over another

brakeman:

A worker who protects the train, throws switches, checks the brakes, and cuts cars out of the train at the correct stations

caboose:

The last car on the train. On a freight train, it’s the conductor’s office

can:

Oil car

car toad:

Car inspector who repairs cars on side tracks in the railroad yard

cornfield meet:

Head-on train wreck

end man:

Rear brakeman

head man:

A freight train brakeman who rides on locomotives

herder:

A mechanic who couples and uncouples locomotives

hogger:

Engineer

hopper:

A car that is loaded from the top and emptied from the bottom

jingle the brass:

Ring the bell

join the birds:

Jump

locomotive:

mud hop:

Car clerk

rail:

Any railroad worker

reefer:

Refrigerator car

riding out:

To ride on top of a boxcar

shuffle the deck:

To switch cars on different tracks in the railroad yard so they are coupled to the correct trains