MyWestworld

Mexico’s Copper Canyon Express

Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by BCAA.

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Near Creel, the train stops. Alongside, Tarahumara women quietly display their intricate baskets woven from grasses or foot-long pine needles. This is not the Mexican bargaining we’re used to. Silent babies, wrapped in bright cocoons, cling to hot-pink sweaters and orange shawls.

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Australia: Riding the Ghan

Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by BCAA.

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On my journey south from Darwin, egrets rise from billabongs and wild buffalo flee the rumble of the Ghan’s approach as the kilometre-long train rockets along at 110 km/h. With welded-steel rails, there’s no clickety-clack. Dirt tracks lead away into eucalyptus forests and thousands of massive, stalagmite-like termite mounds draw gawking Ghan passengers to the windows. This is the land of “Waltzing Matilda,” . . .

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Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer: The Rockies Under Glass

Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by Rob Howatson.

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During a trip aboard the transcontinental in 1886, the wife of Canada’s first prime minister insisted on riding atop the train’s front bumper. The engineer played along, but he must have been sweating bullets. The first lady had chosen the steepest section of track to be out on the cowcatcher – the drop between Hector and Field known as the Big Hill.

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The Trans-Siberian Railway: From Moscow to Mongolia to Beijing

Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by BCAA.

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Large crates, boxes and bags consumed most of the space in the four-berth carriages. I noticed this cargo on the platform in Moscow, but assumed it would make its way to a freight car. I failed to realize, then, that the Mongolian passengers that boarded with it would be the floorshow for most of the trip. At every stop they jumped from the train, wearing new leather coats, mitts, jackets, hats, boots and carrying another dozen of the same. Residents of the small communities waited, money in hand. As soon as the traders disembarked, the haggling started.