Ezra and Gus

Yesteryear! When airbrakes and knuckle couplers were new and unreliable; when railroaders were larger-than-life heroes who toiled on the razor-edge of calamity; when women loved them with unbridled passion, never knowing if they'd ever return from that next run.

Ride the caboose with brakeman Ezra Miles, and the engine cab with fireman Gus Svensen as they steam forth to challenge Fate and Nature, eventually embracing their entwined destiny. Meet Abby and Annette, feminists before their time who learned how to get ahead in a man's world; whose strong-willed natures had to be a match for these tough, hard-living railroaders whose precarious lives they dared to share.
Witness the turmoil that ensues when the nation's first big business the railroads locks horns with the nation's first and foremost embodiment of organized labor the railway unions in the great strikes of Spring, 1894. See how the very survival of a far-flung Northwest frontier society is threatened as the wheels of commerce grind to a halt and cars full of foodstuffs, dry goods and farm implements clog rail yards.

Observe unyielding rail barons throw caution to the wind and take daring measures to reopen these fragile lifelines, while equally determined workers do all in their power to keep them closed. Caught in the middle, irate citizens take sides; communal cohesion breaks down into factions, for and against. In desperation, communities lobby governments to intervene. The ruinous deadlock must be broken with troops if necessary.

Stand in the overpowering shadow of the 'Empire Builder' railroad president and tycoon, James Jerome Hill whose iron will drove the Great Northern RR across the Great Plains and through the Western Cordillera to tidewater on the Pacific Ocean. Marvel at the sheer luck of this premier captain of industry as he relentlessly cuts a swath through the rolling prairies and blasts through the lofty alpine massifs of the Montana Rockies. Share his dreams and nightmares as he vigorously defends his hard-won empire of steel against all comers.

In this prequel to Rage! I invite you to come down to the depot and let me buy you a first-class ticket to a world gone by. Climb aboard with me and relive the life and times of the stalwart railroaders who manned the GN's dangerous Kalispell Division in the midst of the Montana Rockies.

Savor a time when young boys hung around the depot to watch the trains pass. Whenever a hissing, panting locomotive squealed to a halt, they ran down the platform to stand next to the behemoth and look up in awe at the engineer, seated majestically at his cab window, his gloved hand resting on the sill the airline pilot and astronaut of yesteryear.

Come away with a real understanding of an era and an industry you never realized could hold so much fascination. All aboard!

Dettagli