This book has become a classic. Originally published in 1955, reissued, revised and updated regularly until the author's death and then edited, it remained in print until very recently and is easy to obtain second-hand.

The era studied in detail spans a century, from the 1850s to 1955, with later additions according to edition, and covers the whole British Isles. From the heroic early days when Brunel was king, when private trains were at large on the lines, leaky boilers were patched like leaky beer casks, and both travellers and managers proved incapable of comprehending the unique nature of this mode of moving, Rolt studies the development of a safety "mentality" always seemingly one step behind the technology. It is noticeable that even while he follows a roughly chronological course, the accidents fall into distinct patterns.Rolt, an engineer himself, is interested in the nuts-and-bolts how-and-why, and in the slow development of a parallel safety technology.

For most of his period the railways were a system of (often warring) private ownership, with no standardization of practices or policies; moreover, the Railways Inspectorate, charged with safety, had no statutory power to compel but could only advise. And, as he repeatedly demonstrates, the best and most elaborate safety systems are not proof against the human element, nor against pure chance.

Although he stresses the safety record in general of the rail systems, depressingly, again and again, it takes the accidents herein analysed to prod the operators, at all levels, into action. The concept of "fail-safe" just didn't exist:signals and brakes defaulted to OFF in case of malfunction; when lighting was introduced it was (town) gas, highly flammable; yet it took several disastrous train fires (among them Quintinshill: 112 dead) before the rolling-stock was rebuilt with fire-resistant or retardant materials. And so on.

287 pp; chronological index; illustrated; brief bibliography.(Rolt also wrote a superb book of short ghost stories each based in a different industrial setting: foundry, railway tunnel, mine etc. Sleep No More is, of course, out-of-print but available second-hand in paperback.)