There are no trains in NZ that can be termed high speed (and there are unlikely to be), but other countries are more fortunate, and one looks with envy at those who are able to 'fly along the ground' from one city to another. Both the author and publisher (Rosenberg) of this latest book on the subject of high speed train sets are Australian, so there is a solid and - considering none have been able to achieve the speeds in other countries surveyed - some will say disproportionate coverage of initiatives in Australia in the last couple of decades.
Peter Clark states that his "description of the history of high speed trains is a personal one, based on my training and experience, and may not match the ideas of others"; it is certainly skewed in favour of some topics at the expense of others: as an example, the development of the Trans Europ Express (TEE) multiple unit sets from 1957 onwards in Europe is ignored. There are no maps of the routes, discussion of results, provisioning of facilities, photos of interior designs and amenities; and there is just one small diagram (of an SNCF CC7100 class loco of the 1950s) and one small photo of a driving cab control desk.
Essentially it is a presentation of the technology of the train sets and if that is all readers are interested in, then they should find the bulk of this book - technical information on one page of a double page spread and a full page colour photo on the other - will provide what they want, even if there are some notable omissions. The book has 192 pages in A4 landscape format, hardcover with jacket, colour throughout. It is available in our shop for $49.
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