Report a drunken sot on the railway (5)
I believe the answer is:
story
'report' is the definition.
(I know that report can be written as story)
'a drunken sot on the railway' is the wordplay.
'a drunken' is an anagram indicator.
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'the railway' becomes 'ry' (abbreviation).
'sot' with letters rearranged gives 'sto'.
'sto'+'ry'='STORY'
(Other definitions for story that I've seen before include "Anecdote" , "See 10 and 19" , "Narration" , "Tale - lie" , "Narrative or account" .)