Railways from the bolts up...

I sent this to a friend recently asking for suggestions of books etc-

"I am looking for some pointers. I am going to try and build my railway 
bottom up , from characters to scenery to rolling stock. I feel if I 
give personality/roles/functions/back stories to the figures then the 
rest will follow. what I am very aware of, having watched the Pathe 
video of the chap running the station on his own (Port Victoria) with two trains only a 
day,my lack of basic knowledge of how a small country station was run 
and functioned in the twenties and thirties in particular. I wondered if 
you knew of any memoirs/handbooks etc that would give me a flavour of 
railway life at the equivalent of squad level in army terms?"

He gave me some very useful pointers but I thought I would put this out here wondering if the collective blog mind had any suggestions too...