Published

This book is out of print and a reprint is not expected, but there are some chapters that we have made available which may be freely downloaded in the interests of history. This book also contains much knowledge and wisdom provided by Des Smith, formerly Chief Civil Engineer who became a close friend in his last years.

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• Contents Page
• Mission Statement: One of my eccentricities is to add some poetry. I have added the contents page as I acknowledge that in recognition of the depth of research and information in this book and also the fact that it has not been taken up by libraries and accordingly we will be receptive to requests by researchers and writers who wish to have access to other chapters.
• Chapter 1: The Track to the Centre of the Earth. A lesson about railway track.
• Chapter 2: The Cantankerous Business of Railway Curves and their Cant.
• Chapter 3: The Origin of the Irish Broad Gauge in Australia. How the Colonies went their respective ways in the 1850s and who was to blame.
• Chapter 4:Fox, Fitzgibbon and the Queensland Narrow Gauge. A sad story of incompetence and graft.
• Chapter 12: Nuts and Bolts People - the failure of the Fathers of Federation to address the gauge problem. This topic has never been previously explored by academics. It is the longest chapter of the book and paints a sorry tale of the motives that drove those who were charged by the colonists to write the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia.
• Chapter 23: The rise and fall of Australian National Railways. How our Federal Governments fell out of love with railways.

Less than 10 copies available.

$110

$95.00