Ron Fitch was born in 1910 into a railway family. He began his career as a 16-year-old engineering cadet and completed it, 46 years later, having worked at various times for two state railways and the Commonwealth, as Commissioner of South Australian Railways. In this book Fitch gives a vivid account not only of his career but of the camaraderie of the greater railway community. This is a book for all train enthusiasts, celebrating the men, the machinery, the toil and the technology, that opened up a vast and sparsely populated continent.