In the early years of railway history, many blunders arose from the ignorance of those dealing with new technology. Later, many of the promoters and engineers were tainted by another Victorian trait, that of over-confidence. The well known railway author and commentator Adrian Vaughan turns his forthright attention to the subject of pride leading to a fall in this book, from the earliest days of the railway age, where politics rather than engineering determined much of the country's railway development, through to the 21st century where, arguably, the same is true.