The Claw: Terence Haile

Originally published in 1962 as Space Train. An English farmer builds a rocket-powered train which can travel faster than 3000 miles per hour via magnetic field, as a consequence of sabotage, takes off into space to discover a planet inhabited by hostile, crab-like beings. Not much is known about this author: he wrote another sci-fi novel, Galaxies Ahead, a murder mystery entitled The Sports Stars In Danger and he may also have been responsible for a couple of Westerns as well.