The wonderful world of the country passenger train was once part of almost everyones life. Air-conditioned daylight expresses brought luxury travel to serve the main line travellers while sleeping cars were a feature of the overnight interstate expresses. Mail trains ran on main routes to important towns and rail motors or lesser locomotive hauled trains continued the journey so that towns, large and small, enjoyed a service.Today only XPTs and a few railcars remain.

Once they had passed and many branch lines closed, most people forgot the passenger trains, large and small, and the organizations that had supported them. This book, the first of a series, relives the halcyon days of passenger travel in pictures, text, experiences and memorabilia. The books tell the story of not only the trains but also the supporting practices, operations and systems, the infrastructure, the trains of character and the almost innumerable facets that were an integral part of the passenger train services of New South Wales. Locomotives to luggage trolleys, mail and mixed trains to menus - there are so many subjects to explore and the work is to be published in a number of volumes.

Time of the Passenger Train, by noted author Ron Preston, follows the same format as his previous production, the popular Day of the Goods Train.