This combination of documentary and historical novel marries a tale of success against impossible odds with a passionate, compelling and touristic revelation of the magic, legends and romance of the West Highland Railway. Charles Forman, the leading Scots railway engineer of late Victorian Scotland, fresh from many achievements and overcoming a partially negative legacy from work in Nova Scotia, conquers Parliamentary opposition and friction from the West Highland aristocracy to plunge himself into his supreme challenge-the physically impossible task of taking a railway across the rugged terrain of the West Highlands. . His inimitable Irish workforce, and in particular a man from Kerry -Tim Pat O'Sullivan-prove to be crucial allies. . After Forman's early death, Tim's story becomes entwined with the Boer War, the Titanic, World War, with McAlpine construction and as a newly fledged medic, husband and father. His son seems destined to continue the line of heroic achievements