".007" (originally subtitled "The Story of an American Locomotive") is a short story by

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

. It is a story in which steam

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

s are characters (".007" is the serial number of the protagonist), somewhat like the later, better-known tales of '' The Railway Series'' by

Wilbert Awdry Wilbert Vere Awdry (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997) was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He was best known for creating Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas and several other characters he created appeared i ...

and his son.

Publication

The story first appeared in '' Scribner's Magazine'' in August 1897, and was collected with other Kipling stories in '' The Day's Work'' (1898).

Plot

The locomotives themselves have personalities and talk in a manner reminiscent of what in real life would be the manner of the men who operate them. Human beings appear in the story only as seen from the perspective of the engines. The story relates a sort of rite of passage. A fast

goods train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hau ...

was derailed by hitting a shoat (young pig) which got on the track, and ended up in a farm field. .007, a "sensitive", new, youthful engine performs in a heroic and manly way pulling the breakdown train, winning him the respect of his fellow engines. At the conclusion, the highest-ranking engine Purple Emperor, a "superb six-wheel-coupled racing-locomotive, who hauled the pride and glory of the road, the millionaires' south-bound express" inducts him into a fraternal organisation: :"I hereby declare and pronounce No. .007 a full and accepted Brother of the Amalgamated Brotherhood of Locomotives, and as such entitled to all shop, switch, track, tank, and round-house privileges throughout my jurisdiction, in the Degree of Superior Flier, it bein' well known and credibly reported to me that our Brother has covered forty-one miles in thirty-nine minutes and a half on an errand of mercy to the afflicted. At a convenient time, I myself will communicate to you the Song and Signal of this Degree whereby you may be recognised in the darkest night. Take your stall, newly entered Brother among Locomotives!"

Themes

".007" is one of a number of stories and poems that Kipling wrote about engines, engineers, and machines. A social history of technology notes Kipling was a pioneer in "establish ngthe world of work as an appropriate subject for literature" and says, :The affection between Kipling and engineers was mutual. Not only did Kipling use engineers in his plot, but engineers relished his work. He became their unofficial poet laureate. Another critic notes, :A concern for artificial nature and its beneficent powers is also what attracts iplingto the machine, from which, in turn, we get stories like ' The Ship that Found Herself' and '.007'. To Kipling..., the machine is a major expression of man's ability to understand and control the forces of nature. Some contemporary reviewers felt he went too far in this story. In a long essay in ''MacMillan's'' magazine, "an admirer"—who, judging from his comment on bicycles and horses, does not feel the same way about machines as Kipling—complained, : Here all Mr. Kipling's mania break loose all at once—there is the madness of American slang, the madness of technical jargon, and the madness of believing that silly talk, mostly consisting of moral truisms, is amusing because you put it into the mouths of machines.... It is no doubt true that machines have their idiosyncrasies, their personalities even; a bicycle can be nearly as annoying as a horse. For once in a way it may be good fun to push the fancy a little farther and attribute to them sentient life, but Mr. Kipling has overdone the thing.

The 007 connection

The story is sometimes mentioned speculatively as one of many possible inspirations for 007, the code number of

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., ...

's fictional detective

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

, but no connection is known.: "There are many sources for the number 007, and the story about the bus route is just one of them. There is also the Rudyard Kipling short story entitled '007' about a train. Fleming certainly read Kipling...."

Footnotes

External links