In this travel memoir Richards sets out to do the longest train journey in Australia without backtracking. He starts his journey on the two-carriage Gulflander from Normanton to Croydon in Far North Queensland and arrives four weeks later in Western Australia’s town of Bunbury. He covers a distance of over 7000 km, jumping aboard the Spirit of Queensland and the Indian Pacific.

Richards paints a vivid picture as he rattles across the country. He delves into the history of the railways and their various gauge sizes. He also describes Mark Twain’s bafflement in 1897, when passengers were moved to another train in the middle of the night due to break of gauge at Albury. It wasn’t until 1962 that a standard gauge line ran all the way from Sydney to Melbourne.

Behind a locked fence near Sydney’s Central Station, he finds the Gothic style Mortuary Station. Passing the Footscray Trugo Club, Richards expands on the local Melbourne game of trugo, which was first played by railway workers in the 1920s.

My favourite moment is when he is on the XPT, lying on his bed trying to eat cornflakes with a very small spoon, while his travel companion, Mr Singh, sits on the top bunk ‘eating his toast like a pro’.

The author’s love of train travel and history imbues this book making for an interesting and delightful read.

Reviewed by Rosamund Burton