"Dr Hulagu relates this epic in four sections, one of which is a station-by-station itinerary. The text has helpful footnotes, placed where they ought to be: bottom of page. There is a short bibliography and an index. The photographs are well-selected, but rather thin and grey, not really doing justice to their subjects which include pilgrim trains and the beautiful Osmanli Script, surely one of the most decorative to adorn tickets, locomotive tanks, axle boxes etc. Currency conversion could have been more helpful. Nevertheless, this book captures a moment in history before the Middle East (and much more)descended into the Wars of the Ottoman Succession that live with us still." - R.A.S. Hennessey, The Journal of the Stephenson Locomotive Society