Train Beyond the Mountains - by Rick Antonson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A captivating journey blending memoir, history, and biography that takes the reader on one of the world's most famous trains and tells of carving the dramatic route it follows, while pondering other international railways through the eyes of travellers past and present.

Rick Antonson has ridden trains in more than thirty-five countries--but almost everything he thinks he knows about train travel changes when he boards the Rocky Mountaineer with his ten-year-old grandson, Riley. As they wind over trestles and through tunnels, each mile of track uncovers stories of dynamite and discovery, surveyors and schemers, explorers and visionaries, and the people who helped to build Canada against the odds of geography and politics. Surrounded by a wild landscape that sparks imagination, fellow passengers recount train travels in other countries, get nostalgic for the era of steam locomotives, and consider life's unfinished journeys.

Peppered with spirited dialogue, heartrending vignettes, and intriguing anecdotes, Train Beyond the Mountains is a travelogue with urgency: to make your travel dreams happen now. As one passenger muses, "The mistake we make is that we think we have time."

Review Quotes

"[Antonson]... demonstrates the benefits of the slow speed of train travel... As a personal account of a trip on one of Canada's remaining passenger trains and as a history of rail travel in Canada, there's much to enjoy here."
--Winnipeg Free Press

"Antonson's travels with grandson Riley remind me of John Steinbeck's classic Travels With Charley, this time exchanging the open road of America for steel rails rolling through Canada's vast geography and history."
--Michael McCarthy, author of The Snow Leopard Return

"Rick Antonson is an unconventionally skilled writer; an extraordinary wordsmith and storyteller with an imagination off the chart. Rick's latest book, Train Beyond The Mountains, transcends any travelogue I've ever read, unfolding as a mystic journey with his grandson through time and the mountains. His prose is magical, transporting me from my living room onto the train, back into history and to a participant in his conversations with other onboard guests. I savored the experience as if I was there. It is a wondrous journey!"
--Terry Gainer, author of When Trains Ruled The Rockies

"A delightful account that will surprise even those well-versed in the rich lore of the region. Antonson's latest chronicle presents the kind of historical, geographic, and character anecdotes that are both expressive and illuminating."

--David Laurence Jones, author of Railway Nation

About the Author

Rick Antonson has travelled on trains in thirty-five countries and is co-author of a book of railway stories, Whistle Posts West: Railway Tales from British Columbia, Alberta and Yukon. He and his two sons, Brent and Sean, circumnavigated the Northern Hemisphere by train over the course of five trips, travelling through countries as varied as Belarus, Mongolia, and North Korea. Rick and his wife, Janice, became engaged on a train in Alabama en route to New Orleans. Rick is the former president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver, and served as chair of the board for Destinations International, based in Washington, D.C., and vice chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, based in Bangkok, Thailand. He was vice-president of Rocky Mountaineer during its start-up years in the early 1990s. Train Beyond the Mountains is his fifth travel narrative.