Railroad Stories #3: Gangsters of the Rails

Connie Turner, son of the murdered boss of Cootie’s Bluff, walked into plenty of trouble after taking a job on the K., G. & O. Plunder and mystery surrounds the railyards in this nail-biting yarn by E.S. Dellinger, America’s premier railroad fiction author.Gangsters of the Rails was serialized in six issue of Railroad Stories Magazine, beginning with the November 1931 issue. "Gangsters" represents E.S. Dellinger writing with all the skill he commanded in railroad fiction—atmosphere, colorful characters, action, romance, and a lengthier word count, allowing him to fully develop the relationships and conflict surrounding the badland known as "Cootie's Bluff." With an action-packed painting by Emmett Watson and atmospheric illustrations by Joe Easley, Gangsters of the Rails is action-packed pulp fiction!

America's foremost railroad fiction writer was born at Norwood, Mo., on June 1, 1886. At age of 4 he took his first train ride to attend the wedding of his future mother-in-law. After working as a gandy dancer on the "katy," and teaching school, he got a job braking freight on the Mo.P. through the efforts of his brother, conductor Bill Dellinger. Later he and Bill went into Frisco train service. E.S. Dellinger quit the railroad, graduated from New Mexico Normal University in 1923, and served as superintendent of public schools at Spring, N.M. (1923-33), meanwhile writing for various magazines. Most of his stories are novelettes. Several of them appeared in Railroad Man's Stories and Railroad Stories, beginning with "Redemption For Slim" (Dec. 1929). His best-known recurring characters were Brick Donley, King Lawson, Redhot Frost and Rud Randall.