1941. Railroads are no longer being built in the United States. Lines are being abandoned everywhere. But the President of the Soo Line railroad wants his son to learn how to build one from the ground up—so he sends him to the Philippines to build the Manila & Lingayen Railroad. Then the Japanese invade. Will Van Severen and the childhood friend his father sent to look after him, Stuart Hearn, are driven into the Bataan Peninsula, where they are trapped with the rest of the Americans. The Japanese army is closing in. The End of the Line is the story of two childhood friends, both raised on the railroad, both in love with the same woman, facing war and defeat, as well as of the reality of the American railroad in its decline.