A popular account of the trials and tribulations involved in constructing and operating the world's railways, up to 1910. The author evinces a civil engineering background that both hones his appreciation and focuses his attention upon those aspects, but his subjects are so broadly spread in time and location that he does not always get his facts straight. But all in all a good read for anyone interested in the difficulties of railway construction, and the often enormous efforts that were taken in surmounting of those difficulties.

The narrative is occasionally interrupted by missing double pages, due to incomplete copying.