Transcontinental Train Odyssey: The Ghan, the Khyber, the Globe

by Tim Fischer

216 pages. Book appears to have hardly been read and is in Fine condition throughout. Here Are Tales From Tim's Many Hundreds Of Train Trips Around The World.

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2004

Reviews

[Ben Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew this was going to be a good read when the book begins with a carefully drawn diagram comparing several dozen railway gauges in Australia and around the world. This is a book about trains, (and honestly, a LOT of it is about rail gauges), for people who want to read about trains, by a man who clearly adored trains, and was involved with much rail development. This is a man who has a train named after him.

That's not to say that there's not some of the expected travel writing in here, with Fischer commenting on his experiences with railways around the world, and with some fun anecdotes to keep things interesting, but it's hard to know how interesting these would be to someone not familiar with Australian politicians.

Loaded with plenty of informative bits of trivia that sent me on countless Google searches, this is a lovely read for anybody with any enthusiasm about rail transport, particularly Australian. My fears of this being a dry, somniferous read were unfounded, and I enjoyed it quite a lot!