This book addresses the general politics of promotion and the disputes over state assistance for the Fort William-Mallaig line, rather than the heroics and the romance of construction and operation. It reviews other schemes, more or less successful. And it examines the expectations bound up with the railway development, asking how far these had been achieved, or remained relevant, by 1914.'I think I have sometimes made two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, and that is ... perhaps the highest function a man can do for his country': Charles Forman, civil engineer, evidence in support of the Invergarry & Fort Augustus Railway, 1896.