In 1869, Gloriana Womack's family is much smaller since scarlet fever killed her mother and two of her siblings. She lives in a modest cottage in Duluth, Minnesota, with her father and young brother, and she has dedicated her life to holding her tiny, fractured family together--especially as her father is frequently gone on long fishing trips. Their livelihood may come from the waters of Lake Superior, but storms on the lake can be dangerous, even...

"As the formation of Glacier National Park takes Eleanor Briggs and her conservationist father on a journey west to advocate for public lands, her heart carries the weight of a painful past. Since the death of her mother, she has spent her life traveling the country with her father and helping him with his work, but now he's considering settling down and writing a book--and she's not sure what that means for her future. Carter Brunswick faces trials...

Thomas is lost on a strange island. Will the engines he meets there help him get home? And where does that old, dark tunnel lead?

When Anikka Lachlan's husband, Mac, is killed in a railway accident, she is offered--and accepts--a job at the Railway Institute's library and searches there for some solace in her unexpectedly new life. But in Thirroul, Australia, in 1948, she's not the only person trying to chase dreams through books. There's Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war, but who has now lost his words and his hope. There's Frank Draper, trapped by the guilt...

"Thanks to a new line, the railroad has come to Chugwater, Wyoming, bridging the gap between the small town and the larger city of Cheyenne. Now Duff MacCallister can transport his black angus cattle herd with ease by iron horse instead of enduring a two-day trail drive. But the day after depositing the cash in his Cheyenne account, Duff learns that bank president Joel Prescott embezzled every cent--totalling tens of thousands of dollars--and then...

Where's The Thunder, There's Fire. . . Higbee Colorado, population 147, is booming. A visionary named Garrison Wade is building a railroad to connect Higbee to the Santa Fe. But a family named Clinton has its own selfish reasons for making sure these bands of steel go nowhere--and they've brought in a ruthless killer to derail Wade's plan. . . Falcon MacCallister owes a debt to the would-be railroad man Wade--and has a score to settle with the Clinton's...

The Brannock brothers have very different dreams for their lives in the wide-open spaces of the American Southwest. Virgil is a railroad man; Clint is in the Calvary; and Earl has settled in with the Comanches. Their paths cross in a fatal gun-battle that puts their code of honor to the test.

In California, the Southern Pacific Railway is prying the West wide open, and the land is worth its weight in gold. While some men get in on the action, and some get out of the way, one group of settlers is making a stand--and holding up the railway. Turning to Alan Pinkerton's Chicago detective agency, the railroad robber barons hire the perfect agent to penetrate the settler's organization, a man who learned a spy's trade in the Civil War, Ash Tallman....

"When hired gun John Ryan heads into Indian Territory with a brawling crew of railroad workers, a battle of bloodshed and treachery ensues. But when he later meets the proud Cherokees--and the beautiful daughter of an embattled chief--Ryan sees for himself how his employers steel rails are splitting the heart of a people's last home. Can his conscience keep him from pulling the trigger?" -- Page [4] cover.

Rhyming text introduces a variety of trains as they leave a station, rush along the tracks, and arrive at the platform where travelers are waiting.