The Young Engineers in Colorado

In Short

H. Irving Hancock’s classic adventure follows two high-school-educated cub engineers, Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton, as they take on their first professional job with a Colorado railroad camp. Faced with tight deadlines, backstabbing colleagues, hostile corporate rivals, and armed local outlaws, the pair must complete the line before the company forfeits its charter. Through quick thinking, strict ethics, and relentless practical resourcefulness, Tom ascends from entry-level surveyor to acting chief engineer. The book endures as an authentic period artifact of early-twentieth-century industrial optimism, field engineering practice, and clean, fast-paced juvenile drama.

The Story

The narrative opens as teenage surveying prodigies Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton arrive at a remote Rocky Mountain construction camp to join the engineering team of the Short Line (S.B. & L.) Railroad. From the moment they step off the wagon, they face friction from the rough environment and local troublemakers, notably the shiftless outlaw Bad Pete. At the camp, chief engineer Tim Thurston and his assistant, Bill Blaisdell, put the "cubs" to work alongside a genial, college-educated crew.

Tom quickly proves his worth through meticulous transit work and unshakeable composure under fire—literally ducking few threats even when Bad Pete uses him for target practice. Personal conflict quickly develops between Tom and ’Gene Black, a hostile, arrogant rival engineer who resents the boys' skill and rapid progress. After Black attempts to physically intimidate Tom and ruins a mapping drawing, Tom uses his high school football training to throw Black out of the tent, cementing a bitter rivalry.

Trouble escalates when Tom and Harry discover that Black has intentionally faked his field notes on Section Nineteen, running surveys that would ruin the road's grade and force the company to forfeit its state charter. Before Black can be exposed, illness strikes the camp: both Thurston and Blaisdell collapse with severe mountain fever. With leadership crippled and the charter deadline looming, young Tom Reade is thrust into the position of Acting Chief Engineer.

Black, secretly in the pay of the rival W.C. & A. Railroad, turns full traitor. He joins forces with Bad Pete to sabotage the project. They organize armed ambushes, attempt to kidnap Tom, cut telegraph wires, and ultimately dynamite a crucial section of track right before the deadline. Meanwhile, company president Mr. Newnham arrives, frantic as rival Denver politicians maneuver to seize the uncompleted line at midnight.

Supported by his loyal chum Harry, a seasoned camp detective named Dave Fulsbee, and a defensive force equipped with a rapid-fire machine gun, Tom maintains his cool. He organizes ice supplies for the sick, beats off armed raids, and outsmarts Black’s attempt to hijack the telegraph lines using his own knowledge of signaling. Harry and the crew repair the blown-out track just in time, allowing the first through train from Stormburg to roll into the terminus at Lineville before the midnight charter deadline. The saboteurs are captured and given lengthy prison sentences, while Tom and Harry earn national acclaim and permanent positions at the head of the company's engineering corps.

How It Unfolds

The cubs arrive in camp Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton travel by springboard wagon into the Colorado Rockies, catching their first glimpse of western outlaws and meeting their new engineering colleagues under Chief Engineer Thurston.

Testing the new hands Assigned to line surveying under senior engineer Jack Rutter, Tom demonstrates unflappable focus when Bad Pete shoots at his feet, calmly finishing his transit adjustments before knocking the gunman down with a thrown rock.

Fever and foul play An aged Indian squaw treats Tom for a snakebite, but greater danger arises when corrupt engineer ’Gene Black deliberately falsifies surveying levels to destroy the railroad's legal rights.

Tom takes command When severe mountain fever incapacitates Chief Thurston and Assistant Blaisdell, headquarters appoints the capable, hard-working Tom as Acting Chief Engineer amidst rising threats of sabotage.

Under siege in the Rockies Black and Bad Pete assemble a gang of mountain thugs to ambush the camp, but Tom coordinates a defensive victory using a hidden machine gun brought by detective Dave Fulsbee.

The final race to Lineville With hours remaining before the midnight charter forfeiture, Tom survives an abduction attempt while Harry superintends line repairs following a dynamite explosion, successfully bringing the first train through to secure the railroad's future.

The People

• Tom Reade: A cool-headed, exceptionally talented teenage surveyor. He wants to prove his engineering capabilities and meet every professional standard. Faced with physical threats, disease, and corporate sabotage, his calm logic and quick footwork earn him the role of acting chief engineer.
• Harry Hazelton: Tom's loyal companion and fellow cub surveyor. Energetic and supportive, he works tirelessly in the field, managing supply logistics and leading track crews when the main line comes under attack.
• ’Gene Black: A skilled but corrupt senior surveyor. Driven by jealousy and bribed by a rival railroad, he falsifies field books, assaults Tom, and eventually leads armed saboteurs to ruin the line. His scheming ends in a thirty-year prison sentence.
• Bad Pete: A swaggering local gunfighter and thief. After being evicted from the engineers' mess for bad manners, he holds a bitter grudge against Tom and acts as Black's primary enforcement muscle.
• Mr. Newnham: The anxious president of the S.B. & L. Railroad. He desperately wants his mountain line completed on time, constantly worrying as legal and physical obstacles threaten to ruin his company.

In Its Own Voice

“Reade hasn’t done anything to offend you,” returned Blaisdell, half sternly, half goodhumoredly. “You let him alone, and he’ll let you alone. I’m sure of that.”

Assistant Engineer Blaisdell steps between the mountain bully and the new cub surveyor during dinner in the camp mess tent.

“Throw the front of your shirt open, take a few deep breaths, tie down the safety valve and get ready to make the steam fly.”

Tom Reade rallies Harry Hazelton as they prepare to pull an all-nighter sifting through corrupted maps and field notes to save the railroad.

“I have predicted, all along, that we’d have the road through in time, haven’t I?”

Tom reassures President Newnham on the eve of the charter deadline despite knowing armed saboteurs are lurking along the line.

What It's Really About

Underneath its outer framework of Western melodrama and physical action, the book is a love letter to early-twentieth-century industrial labor and applied science. It argues that modern technical training, calm methodical logic, and personal integrity will consistently triumph over raw violence, corruption, and corporate greed. The real conflict lies between constructive effort—represented by precise leveling, careful mapping, and honest sweat—and speculative sabotage. Hancock presents engineering not merely as a technical job, but as a moral calling where precision is a form of character and a well-drawn survey map is a line of defense against chaos.

Why Read It Today

The Young Engineers in Colorado offers a charming, fast-moving window into the popular juvenile fiction of the early 1900s. Readers who enjoy classic American adventure, vintage industrial history, or tales of technical ingenuity will appreciate its straightforward momentum and unironic workplace ethics. The narrative captures the raw atmosphere of western rail-building camps, detailing everything from field transit setups to camp cookery and telegraph operations.

The prose is swift and accessible, though modern readers will easily spot the tropes of its era: dramatic villainy, idealized teenage competence, and period-typical stock characterization (such as the brief appearance of the silent, herb-brewing "squaw"). The dialogue frequently features colorful, dated slang like "tenderfoot," "chesty," and "living rattlers." Despite these period conventions, Tom Reade's absolute refusal to panic under stress remains genuinely entertaining. It leaves you with a nostalgic appreciation for an era that viewed surveyor's transits and steam locomotives as the ultimate instruments of human progress.