I have this intense craving for a novel about riding the train basically. My issue is I don’t want it to just be a setting amidst a larger plot. No train murder stories, no regular stories that just happen to take place on a train.
I need the novel to be wholly about the experience of riding the train, maybe across the US maybe just between two cities whatever. It just has to focus on the experience the train provides and the spirit of public transport.
Insane how hard this is for me to find maybe I’m not looking in the right places. Trains are so beautiful it’s a group of people who have never met and they’re all connected through experience, locked in to a direction literally bound by the railway. There is God in the railway. Infinite potential to be tapped in this hyper specific idea.
Since you don’t want a story, I suggest a train-specific travel book rather than a novel.
you’ll get the highest concentration of train lore with travel books. Any novel will be focused on a story, with the train as a set piece rather than the focal point.
Amazing Train Journeys, Ticket to Ride, around the world in 80 trains, The Big Book of Trains, there are lots of train travel books to choose from.
Seconded, this is one of my favourite travel books of all time!
Train travel blog would also be a good recommendation.
I like this idea I’ll look around for this