The Streamlined Locomotive

The Streamlined Locomotive is a gripping book that follows the story of Theopolis, who is set to modify his way of life to get his family’s support and maintain his position of power. Despite being the scion of a wealthy family of old-fashioned robber barons and industry leaders, Theo wants to be easygoing. Theo expects to inherit the central part of one of the country’s significant railroads and control of Hawgwaller, an entire county in Appalachia, and he is trying to keep his position while doing the least amount of work. However, the patriarch and boss of the family, Uncle Throckmorton P. Bezelbottom, who controls everything, expects him to develop a streamlined steam engine for the two-bit third-rate feeder railroad the county operates.

Theo knows that if he fails to complete all the chores he is currently expected to finish, he will lose his comfortable position in the family. If he doesn’t perform, he will lose his riches and his preferred place in the family, and just as World War II is about to start, he will be drafted into the war. What awaits Theo’s fate? Will he be able to satisfy his Uncle Throckmorton’s expectations? Can Theo develop a streamlined steam engine? Readers will be delighted to know his whole story in this humorous and satirical book.

This is the tragi-comic love and war story of Reginald (British nobility) and Vivian (Austrian Countess), who meet at the 1908 Paris Air Show and become lovers. When World War I broke out in 1914, they each became fighter pilots for their respective countries. This book describes the unusual and unique adventures they have had separately and together, both during the war and afterwards. When the war ends, they get together in the United States of America, where their further adventures include flying onto a mesa, which is fully occupied by a technologically sophisticated native tribe, meeting up with a ghost squadron of dead pilots from the war, and organizing an early airline.