This is a wonderful history of the steam era coming to an end and the rise of diesels. Using contemporary advertising material, timetables, photographs and other printed ephemera, combined with primary source material the author has created a nostalgic journey of railways and those who worked there. Every state is covered as well as Commonwealth Railways. There are chapters on some of the great personalities who steered the railways into the era of diesel. Across Australia, one hundred thousand men and women were 'in the railways'. From power houses to poultry farms, laundries to loco sheds, wheelbarrows to workshops, snow resorts to signal boxes, the railway had it all. From lumps of iron, men hammered out a mighty locomotive. Skilled craftsmen shaped first class carriages for the rich. Day and night, from Katoomba to Kalgoorlie, Mount Gambier to Mount Isa, the rhythm of rolling wheel on silvery rail was never silent. For much of this time, steam was the inseparable of Australia's railways on the move. By the turn of the century the railway scene had utterly changed. Steam, mostly, was but a fond memory. New motive power had taken command of the tracks and trains. For Australia's railways the diesel-electric locomotive was the key to survival - and the future. Railroads -- Australia -- History. | Steam locomotives -- Australia -- History. | Diesel locomotives -- Australia -- History. | Railroads -- Dieselization -- Australia -- History. | Australian