In the following pages we shall peep into the history of typical companies in Great Britain, the United States, and elsewhere; consider the various forms of traction, signals, and other mechanical appliances connected with the working of a railway; notice the effects of railway communication on a country for its peaceful development, or its conquest in war; and make the tour of a typical locomotive factory. These and other matters have been treated as simply as may be, but with sufficient fullness to give the reader a fair idea of what the railway really is, how it has been made, and what the future may have in store for it. - Summary by from the preface.
