Train Town

About the Book

The year is 1880 and Jackson Junction is about as wild as any town on the western frontier. A national depression in 1873 has forced many men out of their jobs. One sheriff depends upon volunteers for his posses to keep the peace.

It's in this social climate that Toby, a 15-year-old, arrives on an orphan train from New York City to be adopted by the Oliver family and to be put to work as a cub reporter for Mister Dunn, editor and publisher of the Junction Citizen Press.

Mister Dunn is tired of printing only planting schedules for farmers and cooking recipes for the town's wives. He wants exciting stories in his newspaper, and gives that assignment to Toby.

Of course, with 67 saloons on Main Street and a news tipster by the name of Captain Pig Reardon of the Michigan Central Railroad Police, Toby has no trouble finding excitement to write about for Mister Dunn.

"Train Town", as Toby likes to call Jackson Junction, because of the numerous trains, and their whistles, provides plenty of exciting stories for Toby to write.

There are bank robberies by an elusive gang, a terrible collision of two passenger trains near the depot, a coal mine explosion, a cyclone, a wild cattle drive through town that has a fatal ending, a wild west show that almost gets Toby killed and a pair of court cases which involve the Michigan Central Railroad just to mention a few of Toby's big stories.

And, there's Bethany Wiggins, who, at 15, has her eye on Toby as her future husband ... and, not too far in the future as far as she's concerned.

There's never a dull moment with Captain Pig Reardon around to bend Toby's ear with "scoops" for him to write about for the Junction Citizen Press. However, Pig always has an ulterior motive, hoping to lure Toby into one of his quick-money-making schemes to help Pig finance his way east, so he can perform on the New York stage.

"Train Town" will take the reader back into a time of oil lamps, dirt streets and the smell of horse manure, wooden sidewalks, bare-knuckle prize fights, twenty-five cent meals at restaurants and boarding houses for a good many of the town's families.

And, of course, the railroads. They never stop building new lines into Jackson Junction. They come from the east, the west, the south and the north. There'll be three different passenger depots in town, plus freight yards, roundhouses and miles and miles of track.

"Train Town" has it all, and Toby Oliver, cub reporter, is ready to tell you every exciting minute of it in the action-packed pages of this novel.

About the Author

Author Robert A. Frey writes in the first person for the very first time in "Train Town", his sixth novel to be published by AuthorHouse and its predecessor, 1stBooks.

As this novel's story-teller, Frey returns to his actual career as a newspaper reporter, a job he performed from a 16-year-old in high school until he retired as a professional in 1988.

However, the fictional reporter in "Train Town", Toby Oliver, must work in the 1880s and in a far different news gathering environment than Frey ever did.

Jackson Junction is as wild as any western frontier town when Toby arrives from  New York City on an orphan train. The youth, at 15, is immdiately thrown into the fire as a cub reporter, much as Frey remembers his first assignments as a professional.

Frey puts as much of himself as possible into his Toby character. While Toby and Frey were reporters in far different eras, Frey puts Toby through difficult news events, which produce similar results in the form of exciting and often dangerous assignments.

"If the reader feels that he or she is seeing me in this novel, then I will have accomplished my mission in writing it," Frey said. "I didn't live in the 1880s," Frey added, "but, I am sure reporters haven't changed all that much. Back then competition was as furious between rival newspapers in town as it is today between newspapers and their rival radio and television stations. There is always a desire for a 'scoop' no matter what year the reporter is on the job."

Frey began his full-time journalistic career as a reporter of police, fire department and court news for his local daily newspaper, The Jackson Citizen-Patriot. He spent most of his latter years working as a reporter, columnist, copy editor and page designer in the newspaper's sports department.

Frey, whose newspaper career spanned some 40 years as an amateur and professional, is working on yet another "August" novel, which will be the fifth in that series of mysteries.

Other fictional novels, all with historic backgrounds, written by Frey and published by AuthorHouse, are:

August in Paradise

August and Beyond

The 10th of August

The Knight Before Last

August in a Haunted House