The Break of Gauge: A Social History (SRB-TBOG)
Product No.: SRB-TBOG
Title: The Break of Gauge: A Social History
Author(s): Wilson, John
Illustrator(s): N/A
Publisher: Sarlines Railway Books
ISBN: 9780645621938
Condition: New
Binding: Laminated Pictorial Boards
Dust Jacket: No Jacket
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Year: 2024
Features: 227 Pages with Colour & Black/White Photos.
John takes the reader back to the origins of the nation’s railway gauge conundrum, a tragic tale of petty colonial jealousies and small mindedness. Similar gauge problems were overcome in the UK and USA, but not here.
Why?
A lack of imagination and political will come to mind, but as John’s research shows, the reasons are somewhat more complicated. Australia’s inability to remedy the gauge situation has been a severe handicap to our economic development, and almost proved disastrous during the years of World War II. John’s much needed publication should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in Australian railway history.