This is the story of an important microcosm of the Industrial Revolution: the development of the railroad. Although the story is one of personalities — and the book is engaging and a good read as a result — an important theme runs through the book. Building a railroad is not just a matter of some genius saying, "Let's take this steam engine of James Watt and stick it on something with wheels." A railroad has a lot of ingredients — none of which existed in the 18th century. First, you have to have the right kind of steam engine — the early steam engines were low-pressure — driven by a vacuum that lifts the piston — and as a result generate far too little power relative to the weight of the machine to be mobile. What was needed was a high-pressure engine, with the pistons driven directly by the steam. In order to build such an engine proper materials are needed — strong-enough and light-enough metal — and precision engineering — tolerances have to be fine enough to prevent catastrophic leaks (something that was not the case with the U.S. space shuttle). Hence developments in metallurgy and manufacturing are as important to building a steam train as the idea of a steam engine — and of course a railroad needs the right kind of tracks to run on as well. So the story of this microcosm of the Industrial Revolution is not a story of isolated geniuses and eureka moments, but rather one of the effort of a great many people — some famous, some not, some working in collaboration and some working independently.