This is a gloriously nerdy book. Shuichiro Yamanouchi - considered to be one of the founding forces behind Japan’s “Bullet Train” system - takes us behind the scenes of its development. It’s a mixture of autobiography and corporate retrospective, with a healthy dose of engineering geekery. Although originally published in 1999 there are fairly comprehensive footnotes updating the reader on facts and statistics.

Trains are an international engineering challenge, so there’s plenty of comparisons with other countries networks - including some behind the scenes information about projects which never quite made it:

DB also built unusual rolling stock. In 1931, it built the Schienen-Zeppelin, a car resembling an airplane that had a propeller at its rear end and ran it over tracks. It posted speeds of 230 km/h, but of course, it was never put into actual service.

Shuichiro’s prose is surprisingly honest about the failures (both professional and personal) which shaped his development and the difficult birth of a now iconic train system. At times, the book feels like a series of mini Challenger-reports as it goes over various accidents and their root causes.

You don’t have to be particularly interested in trains to get something out of the book - I’d say it was essential reading for anyone interested in engineering challenges:

The Shinkansen also had a great many bugs, big ones, and small ones. It took until 10 years after the opening of the line for all the bugs to be eliminated. However, we cannot guarantee that there are no bugs left, and new bugs may show up at any time. We don’t believe that the Shinkansen is a perfect system, and we don’t believe in the ‘myth of safety.’ The important thing is to be constantly on the lookout for bugs and eliminate the small ones before they turn into big ones.

Many thanks to Katie Fenn for the recommendation.