Painting Trains is a collection of three short stories which each capture both the romanticism of the steel rail and the carefree nostalgia of childhood. "Gus" follows a young narrator and his older cousin as a venture from their campsite finds them lost in the unforgiving bush. When they stumble upon an abandoned train, unbeknownst to them, a harrowing discovery awaits within its rotting interior. "Steampunk" captures a young narrator's dream as a sprawling trackside vineyard morphs into a fantasy landscape where coal grows on grapevines and workers labour the fields to feed a massive, at-the-ready locomotive. Both joy and turmoil soon arise during this exhilarating coming-of-age adventure. "Hobo Shoestring" follows a narrator through an adrenaline-fuelled ramble aboard a helter-skelter train that introduces everything from '60s rock culture to the notorious outlaws of the Wild West.