Did you know that the smallest railway gauge in the world is 1ft 3in and can be found at Bush Mill in Tasmania, and at selected locations in Germany and Japan? Even this Tasmanian-born reviewer has to confess that he did not. Railways enthusiast Tim Fischer, ever passionate, insists that you first cross the tracks of a detailed breakdown of Australian and international railway gauges before embarking on his grand railway tour. There are two pages of carefully listed gauges, which include the ubiquitous 5ft 8°in Stephenson Standard on which our intercontinental trains now run following the disastrous go-it- alone rail policies of our state governments before and after Federation. This multi-gauge craziness haunted us well into the twentieth century, with travellers from Sydney to Melbourne forced to change a frosty morning. This tested the patience of Mark Twain, who in 1897 found himself unable to ‘explain the inexplicable’. Various state gauges listed include the Anglo Cape Narrow, Irish Broad, the intriguing Suez Whalhalla Whitfield and Deloraine Standard – a one-off 4ft 5in track, which apparently only runs (or ran) from the Mersey River district to nearby Deloraine in northern Tasmania.