In this new collection of rail poems, editor Mark Pirie presents a fresh and vibrant journey through many facets of the railway and explores its significance in our daily lives.

Contributors: Anon, Fleur Adcock, Marilyn Duckworth, Michael O'Leary, F W N Wright, Kim Eggleston, Louis Johnson, Jan Kemp, Fiona Kidman, Ron Riddell, Will Lawson, Jean Hamilton Lennox, Roger Wrighton, Hugh Isdale, Stephen Oliver, Peter Olds, M K Joseph, Rhys Pasley, Mark Pirie, Alistair Paterson, Simon Williamson and Peter Cape.

Sample poem by Anon:

Beginnings

Give us the railroads, Vogel!

Never heed detractions's cries,

The ties that link our state to wealth

Are certainly railroad ties.

Could narrow minds but have their way

They'd tear up each outbound track,

And leave us nought but a toll-bound bay,

With private jobs at their backs.

Give us the railroads, Vogel!

We need them one and all,

With them our state will grow rich and great,

Without them she will fall.

Over the mountains and over the plain,

North, south, east and west,

Twine and twine the priceless chain,

Over New Zealand's broad breast.

recording controversy over Prime Minister

Julius Vogel's decision to build a nationwide

railway.