‘From the Driver's Seat’ was my 1989 book – now out of print - details 14 rail journey's from the locomotive driver's perspective, an oral account of what occurs from signing on for duty to when relieved upon arrival at the destination.
Why might I write something of an account of such a book 25 years after publication and moreover, the book is out of print. This book was the fourth of 16 such railway books I wrote in that busy period from 1982-1996 and the purpose of detailing now this particular book and these books as a collective, is where the money went as a missionary.
Now many missionaries have written books and by and large they have a niche market as did my railway books which I have thoroughly enjoyed as a former locomotive engineman.
From the Driver's Seat has these stories written by the drivers' themselves:
From the Driver's Seat
Steam
Clive Dunsale: Julia Creek to Richmond, Qld
Bruce McAlister: Albury Goulburn, NSW
Bob Farquhar: Katooma Snow Trip, NSW
Ern Goodlett: Cowra to Harden, NSW
Toby Priestly: Parkes to Broken Hill, NSW
Ken Ames: Sydney to Lithgow, NSW
Diesel
Barry Dunn: Albury to Melbourne, VIC
Mark Tronson: Nowra to Wollongong, NSW
Allan Davies: Sunlander (Roma St to Maryborough), Qld
Terry Ryan: Goulburn to Sydney, NSW
Peter Redfern: Overland (Dimboola to Bordertown), VIC
Pat McCarthy: Brisbane Limited (Taree to Grafton), NSW
Allan Davies: Grand-Final Express (Heildon to Brisbane), Qld
Mark Tronson: Mountain Track (Port Kembla to Summit Tank), NSW
Laurie Lill: XPT (Sydney to Taree), NSW
From the Driver's Seat sold around the same numbers as all 16 of these niche market railway books. I had the locomotive manufacturer Clyde Engineering take the back cover advert which paid for the contracted
The Book Printer to print these railway books and then I contracted varying distributors into both newsagents and bookshops. With my 8 other books of various titles, in total they cleared around $10,800 a book which even a quite small publishing company wouldn't bother with.
One rail story
One of the From the Driver's Seat author driver's was very excited after he had received a number of courtesy books for his family after publication. I saw him weeks later, and with a beaming face and in colloquial terms explained: "That's the best bloody book I've ever read!"
When asked how many of the train driver's stories he had read, he was equally excited, "Only mine!"