Great Western Coffee Shop

Compared with Canada's more celebrated routes, the Skeena is far lesser known. But it's one of the world's most beautiful rail journeys – and remains vital for local communities.

It was a glorious autumn afternoon when I boarded the Skeena: the sky was electric blue, the Rockies sparkling in the sun as we rolled out of Jasper and rapidly picked up pace. In the carriage vestibule, the top half of the door latched like a stable door, so I swung it open as a tornado of cotton wool spun past – dandelion heads carried off by the wind. Curling around the Fraser River – home to coho, chinook, pink and sockeye salmon – we caught the attention of a lone angler in waders who waved up from the beach-like bank. Over the first hour, turquoise rapids roared trackside, golden eagles soared and the sharp scent of balsam fir and pine whipped through the open doorways.

Late in the afternoon, while passengers were dozing or scanning for moose and caribou, the train began to slow, coming to an abrupt halt by a forest. There was murmuring down the carriage and a few passengers craned their necks to see if there had been a wildlife sighting when the train eased off again. As a flag-stop service, the Skeena had stopped to collect a mushroom picker who wandered out from the trees and flagged down the train.

The Settle-Carlisle line is the most scenic rail route in England: a 73-mile trundle through the wide fells of Yorkshire and Cumbria. But it was only built because of dented pride.

On its route between Dete and Ngamo Sidings, the "Elephant Express" offers guests an utterly unique safari experience.

The Japanese are obsessed with bullet trains – but they're equally smitten by those that aren't so speedy.

Since 1963, Mauritania’s 2km-long Train du Desert has carried iron ore and brave passengers 704km across the Sahara Desert.

Wrapped around Myanmar’s former capital, Yangon, also known as Rangoon, is a local commuter train network that slowly crawls a 46km loop. Each of the 38 stops provides, quite literally, a different window into the bustle of Yangon’s social life, and the three-hour round trip connects leafy suburban areas and satellite towns to the bustling city centre

The Colombo to Badulla railway is so enchantingly beautiful that it's become a bucket list adventure for many visitors.

Nobody uses the Nilgiri Mountain Railway to get from A to B, but for the sheer joy of riding in a train that passes through 16 tunnels, 250 bridges and 208 serpentine curves.