Book People 50 Greatest Train

Acclaimed travel writer Anthony Lambert presents his selection of train journeys with real character, sublime scenery, a sense of history, a well-appointed train, or even the opportunity to enjoy a meal with proper napery, silver and glass. Some journeys are well-known, such as the Glacier or Orient Expresses, which combine glamour, outstanding cuisine and service and colourful history. Others less so: the train from Inverness to -Wick and Thurso traverses some of the wildest country in Britain; or the coast-to-coast journey through the chestnut- and pine-clad mountains of Corsica, crossing one of Gustave Eiffel's glorious viaducts of gossamer steel. From the modest line through North Yorkshire's Esk Valley to the Trans-Siberian; from a narrow-gauge web of lines in the Harz Mountains to the train that crosses Australia's barren Nullarbor Plain in a dead-straight 478km, Lambert's is an unmissable selection for any lover of travel, that is as delightful as the destination.