Written both for veteran train travelers and those considering their first rail journey, this guide book will make any trip smoother and more enjoyable with its insightful travel trips and lots of information about how railroads operate. The author explains how individual trains are operated and offers tips on booking trips, finding the lowest fares, packing for an overnight trip, what to do on board, and whom to tip and how much. This revised fourth...

Two little trains, one streamlined, the other old-fashioned, puff, puff, puff, and chug, chug, chug, on their way West.

Tom Langdon, a weary and cash-strapped journalist, is banned from flying when a particularly thorough airport security search causes him to lose his cool. Now, he must take the train if he has any chance of arriving in Los Angeles in time for Christmas with his girlfriend. To finance the trip, he sells a story about a train ride taken during the Christmas season. Thereupon begins one of the most hilarious-and heartwarming-journeys ever told. Along...

In Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Theroux recreates an epic journey he took thirty years ago, a giant loop by train (mostly) through Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia. In short, he traverses all of Asia top to bottom, and end to end. In the three decades since he first travelled this route, Asia has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed, China has risen, India...

An account of Theroux's trip by train from Boston to Bogota, Columbia.

Two teens, Hugo and Mae, are strangers until they share a cross-country train trip that teaches them about love, each other, and the futures they can build for themselves. British-born Hugo is determined to take his last-hurrah-before-college train trip across the United States. One snag: the companion ticket is already booked under the name of his ex, Margaret Campbell. Nontransferable, no exceptions. Enter the new Margaret C. (Mae for short), an...

Railroads can take you anywhere from the Arctic Circle to the South Pacific -- learn all about the world and how engineering changed it.