Many thanks to those of you who asked a question about the book via social media. I have combined these with a recent Q&A pulled together by my PR people:

What’s the book about?

In early 2020 I completed a 6347-mile trip around the United States, following up on a shorter 3400-mile trip a couple of years before. The book is all about life travelling by long-distance train, the history and workings of the railroad, and the people and places I met along the way. I have also linked many of these places to well-known Hollywood films, and tried to find the exact locations where they were filmed. I also had some fairly weird weekends trying out things off the rails that took me right outside of my comfort zone.

Why did you choose America for your latest adventure?

I’ve spent quite a lot of time on trains in Central and South East Asia. I wanted to experience something totally different. The United States has a good network of long-distance trains, and there is of course huge physical and cultural diversity across the country. Interestingly, with English as the main language, I also liked the idea of being able to talk to a wide range of people without an interpreter – that’s very different from being in the middle of Siberia.

What about Covid?

I was extremely lucky. My journey was planned for January and February 2020, long before the world knew about Covid. I heard about the virus whilst I was in California, but only isolated cases in the north-east of the U.S. were being reported in the media at that time. Within two weeks of my return home we were in the first shocking moments of the original lockdown.

Is it different from your other books?

It’s very much life on the rails with me as always. But I have been able to research the history of the railroad more easily than was possible in Russia and the Far East. This was actually the first trip I have been on when I have known I would be writing a book about it, so I came back with several notebooks full of the detail of my travels, the places and the people. Perhaps the biggest change is the inclusion of the film content, which I really enjoyed writing about.

Is this a history book then?

Not really, but it recognises the influence of the railroad on history and life in America. The development of the railroad from east to west ties up with everything I came across so neatly. The railroad opened up the west of America, which also brings into focus a lot of the western and cowboy films. The Amtrak trains of today have evolved from services by multiple smaller companies which competed to transport passengers over large distances in real style. Originally some of these rail companies even went to war with each other to capture vital routes.

What sort of films have you written about?

Lots! Most people might think of films like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Midnight Run or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but some of the locations I come across are less immediately obvious. I also touch on some well-known television programmes like Breaking Bad. And throughout the book the plot of Silver Streak is not far away.

Do you have a favourite film?

That’s almost impossible to answer! In the book I actually talk about two of my favourite war films, Apocalypse Now and Das Boot – you have to read the book to understand how they connect with my journey. I also explore the connection of Houston to Local Hero and New York to Live and Let Die. All top films in my opinion.

Which was your favourite film location?

The search for Jim Rockford’s mobile home from The Rockford Files was great fun, but Twisters, or Los Pollos Hermanos, from Breaking Bad was just as special. From a film point of view, those stairs in Chicago Union station where The Untouchables shootout took place are just amazing. You feel that you’re right there in the movie with Eliot Ness and Jimmy Malone.

What was your route?

On the first trip I went coast to coast, via Denver, finishing in San Francisco. But on the most recent trip I set out from New York and headed first to Chicago, then south, looping around from New Orleans and Houston, and across to Los Angeles. From there I travelled all the way back to Chicago again, via New Mexico and Colorado.

Do you like Amtrak trains?

I think they’re wonderful, especially if you’re solo in what they call a roomette, a small two-berth sleeper that converts into comfy seats during the day. Of all the trains I have been on in the world they convey the closest thing to a private train experience that you can have on a regular train. They provide so much space for their passengers, who enjoy not just their seat or room, but also a sightseeing lounge with café, and of course a proper dining car.

Which was your favourite train/route?

Based on the landscape and a simply amazing crew, it was the Sunset Limited from Houston to LA. A close second would be Southwest Chief from Albuquerque to Chicago.

What sort of people did you meet on the trains?

Everyone! Film directors, start-up CEO’s, special forces, Amish groups, actors, native Americans, rocket scientists – they will all forever stick in my mind. You get to meet so many people in the dining car, because passengers get seated together as a matter of course. It’s called community seating, and it’s a proud Amtrak tradition.

You mention being pushed outside your comfort zone. Can you give us an example?

I tried to ‘deep dive’ into local ‘happenings’ whenever I got off the train. In Houston I spent time in mission control at the Johnston Space Center, in New Orleans I performed in a second line parade, and in Albuquerque I fired the most powerful rifle the world. Some of the food was a little out of my normal repertoire as well!

Did you have a favourite meal?

I had many excellent meals. Bar food in Chicago was dominated by their love of hot and spicy (chicken) wings. The Creole and Cajun food of Louisiana was perhaps the most interesting, followed closely by New Mexico and its love of chili! I love the bar scene in America – it’s so friendly, and the quality of food and locally brewed beer is simply amazing.

Will you be going back to America?

Definitely. I really want to try the Empire Builder, and also the Alaska railroad. I’d like to go back to New Mexico too. Something just clicked with me there. I like everything about the place, almost even more because no one seems to understand why!

What’s next for you?

I’ve got so many ideas. I had to postpone a trip to the iron ore railway in Mauretania at the start of the year, so I’d like to get that done. I also wanted to do some train stuff in Myanmar next, but that’s looking like it’s on hold right now. Maybe Indonesia or the Philippines.

What advice would you give someone wanting to take their first big rail adventure?

There are some great resources available on the internet allowing a lot of research to be completed from the comfort of your armchair. But don’t ignore the help of destination country travel agents. They can often help when railway ticket systems don’t work well. Try not to think of it as one trip, but several legs, so that you can focus on the next stretch rather than worry about the whole thing. Then you can just sit back, talk to fellow passengers and have some fun! Oh, and bring a book too.

Where do I buy the book?

It’s on sale right now at Amazon, both as a paperback (£9.95) and a Kindle book (£3.99).

If you have any other questions, please do let me know.

The cover has has been designed by Jake Colling. It’s a deliberately simpler look than some of my past books, but I feel it conveys what the book is about beautifully. I really hope you like it too? Please let me know.

What is the book about?

In early 2020 I completed a trip around the United States, following up on a shorter trip across America a couple of years before. The book is all about life travelling by long distance train, the history and workings of the railroad, and the people and places I met along the way. I have also linked many of these places to well known Hollywood films and tried to find the exact location that they were filmed. I also had some fairly weird weekends trying out things off the rails that took me right outside of my comfort zone. The back cover copy can be found on my book page.

There seem to be lots of interesting trains in the cover design. I thought all the Amtrak trains were the same?

Most long distance Amtrak trains run with a pair of Genesis locomotives up front, and a set of either single deck Viewliner carriages or duplex Superliners behind. However, the United States has many heritage railroads where you can enjoy a variety of classic trains, many of which are steam. In addition to Amtrak, there are also a couple of other rail operators, for example the amazingly cool New Mexico Rail Runner – it really does go ‘meep meep’!

Why did you choose to go to America?

After three big trips across Siberia into Asia, I needed something very different to write about. The United States seemed to fit the bill, with the combination of real scale, huge diversity, and for the first time a language which I mostly understood. America has a totally different dialect for its railroad though, so I have included a whole chapter on ‘rail speak’ in the book.

Were you travelling during COVID-19?

No, I returned to the United Kingdom just a few days before everything kicked off. I was very lucky that my trip was in normal times. Back then ‘The Donald’ was talking about some bug from China that he’d done a pretty good job making disappear.

Which route did you take?

All the detail will be coming along with a more detailed Q&A in the run up to the book launch – today I’m just pleased to have the cover officially revealed. However, a look around my blog will give you some good clues!

When is it being released?

I hope to have the date finalised by my publisher shortly, but I understand that it will most likely be on Monday 15th March 2021. As soon the book has gone to print it will be available for pre order on Amazon.

When will we hear more?

I’ll keep you posted on this blog and social media. You can also sign up to receive direct updates to your inbox on my homepage. Twitter is the best place to find me online – @OnTheRails .

Whilst I’m not quite ready to reveal the title just yet, I would like to tell you a bit more about it. First of all I must say that I have been incredibly fortunate. I returned from my last trip just two weeks before lockdown kicked off in the UK. I was able to shift from travelling to writing while all went quiet outside my Engine Shed – only the deer and the pheasants to keep me company. But as many have pointed out, when I’m working on a book I’m really living a locked down life anyway…

After writing a lot about travelling from the U.K. to various parts of Asia, I wanted a totally different place to set my adventures in, and the United States gave me that in spades. I originally I thought that I would need three trips to gather the material for my book, but I managed it in two. One would have been enough. But it has been a tough book to write, as I have approached it in a slightly different way from my past work. The chapters include a lot more railroad detail that has needed much research to ensure accuracy, and this has taken time. I have also included a theme beyond life on the rails for the first time – writing about where trains and movies meet on the big screen and looking at their filming locations in real life.

You might find it hard to believe, but this is the first trip I have been on when I knew in advance that there would be a book – so I returned home with several handwritten notebooks. Travelling in an English speaking country, I was able to learn much more about the people I met along the way. You really do meet a cross section of life in the Amtrak dining car, and everyone likes to talk – a lot. This is quite a change to spending a week on a train in Siberia drinking beer with people who I have almost no words in common.

Off the rails I got involved in some interesting adventures. I don’t want to spoil the enjoyment of the book, but some were surreal, fun and unimaginable before I arrived. I spent time in cities that many tourists visit, but also a few that seldom see visitors from outside the state. Being able to research the films made in the places I visited was absolutely fascinating. I’m not sure how many films with trains you can think of, but there are actually hundreds. I also included a few of my favourite television shows, and in a couple of cases I got much closer to them in real life than I had planned to.

I’m now very much in love with America and its railroad and hope to return there soon to explore new places. I really hope you will find my story interesting, and that it might even provide inspiration to take your own American railroad adventure once life gets back to some sort of normality. I will be revealing the title of the book and the cover in the New Year – watch this space. If you want to make sure you don’t miss anything, you can register for updates from me at the bottom of my home page. In the meantime I hope that you stay safe and well.

My very best, Matthew

We were called before the train had been reversed onto the platform, I think mainly as the red cap attendants needed several journeys to get passengers who needed assistance to the train. It arrived 30 minutes before departure, and I quickly settled into my roomette, upstairs in carriage 0430, one of two sleepers on the train. You might think of long-distance trains as enormous, but this one consists of just two sleepers, two coach cars, a baggage car, a dining car, and a sightseeing lounge car. On some routes, extra carriages get taken on and off, but this is the core of every Amtrak long-distance train set.

Once I had a dinner reservation made I unpacked my small bag and set the room up how I’m used to doing, in a way that I know where things are in the dark and the more confined space once the bed is made up from the two seats. I actually hang my bags up, leaving more floor space and I also have a way of stacking devices between the table and the window. This is another one of the slightly older sleepers, so it has an ‘open’ closet cupboard making it feel slightly more spacious inside the roomette. Elsewhere you only really notice its age in the toilets, which are a bit worn out.

The observation car, or ‘sightseeing lounge’ has two different configurations downstairs, but is pretty much the same up top. One version LA to ABQ has a bar-style service counter, the other from ABQ to CHI is a self-service one, with a cashier area.

The food and drink offering is the same. The attendants down here have to ‘sell’ their wares to the coach customers, whereas food is included in the dining car to those in the sleeper coaches. This means a bit too much activity on the intercom with discounted deals and frequent opening and closing announcements.

Coach customers are welcome to come into the dining car, and can pay the prices on the menu.

Overnight California gives way to Arizona, and the cowboy country I wake up to is strangely familiar from all those western movies. But nothing prepares me for the big sky and little fluffy clouds. I surprise myself and get up for an early breakfast, even though we have changed a time zone overnight, back to mountain time. Time zones on Amtrak trains can be tricky if you have a dining car reservation around the time of the change – clarification is needed. Before long we are in New Mexico. It’s cold at night here, and snow lies in shaded areas.

In the late morning, I get off the train in Albuquerque for a planned side trip and get back on the same carriage 3 days later. My off the rails experience were to do with research for my next book, which I’m really getting immersed in at the moment. You will have to wait to see what I got up to!

Back on board in time for lunch, the train gets refueled before setting off east. I meet a man in a white biohazard suit on the lower deck, and he’s clearly trying to fix a plumbing problem in the limited time we have left at the stop. He runs out of time and leaves us with just one of the thee toilets in working order. The shower is fine though, and there are more toilets than needed for the number of people in the adjacent sleeper.

I munch on a Ceasar salad for lunch and discuss all things Amtrak with my fellow passengers. I love the afternoons on a long-distance Amtrak route, I often take a nap after lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon watching the sun get lower which can make for some good photographs. We reach Colorado in the early evening and its time to freshen up for dinner. I book a community seat at a table for 7.30 pm, about the time we reach La Junta for a crew change. But there is something else going on here. The Engineer says there will be an ‘equipment change’ and the power will go out. What he doesn’t tell us is how long this will take, so I sit alone at a table in the dining car sipping a couple of glasses of wine in the darkness for two hours, when new locos are finally added back on. My steak is a late-night feast, and well worth the wait.

Over breakfast, the really nice lady who serves in the dining car introduces me to the man who fixed the train last night. Its something to do with pumps and flooding, but I avoid technical questions. I eat my usual three-egg omelet with cheddar cheese and mushrooms and enjoy the views of the Kansas prairie.

On the platform at Kansas City I chat with one of the Amish travelers who points out that we have acquired a couple more locos, now four in total as well as some other carriages, the mighty Chief must be quite a sight, but I can’t get far enough to photograph it and the attendant warns me to stay close as we are shortening stops to make up time.

I have lunch with a couple of high school girls on a class trip to Washington. I good chance to ask questions about the latest mobile phones – mine is eight years old. I also get to try out the new Amtrak BBQ pork wings, which are great. More on this in an Amtrak menu post.

We catch up nearly an hour crossing Missouri and into Ilinois. The rail towns are pretty and they all seem to have museums with steam engines trackside. Tempting, but no time to do anything more than a cursory photograph. Eventually, we pull into Chicago Union Station at 4.20 pm. The Chief has covered 2265 miles in around 44 hours. All in all a great run, even though the toilets didn’t work and a two-hour wait for my steak on the run from Albuquerque. It’s all about the staff on a train like this, and the crew on the Chief have been totally first class.

Waiting for the 09.35 train, passengers mill about in the pre-sunshine cold of the desert morning until the doors of the duplex carriages open 20 minutes before our departure. They are talkative, friendly and really interesting.

Onboard the train is clean and comfortable, laid out over two decks and a mezzanine level at each end. A flurry of walkie talkie activity and we are good to go, the fireman releases the handbrake. ‘Meep, meep’, the Railrunner sets off up the line to Santa Fe ‘on the ball’. The conductor sells me a ticket as she does her rounds, $10 for a return journey, free if you are over 62, and reduced if you are a student or a veteran.

There is no catering on board and I wish I had picked up a cup of coffee before hopping on.

Out the window, there is a massive amount of open space and we pass towns and Navaho reservations en route. Life here is single story and simple. I read that the Navaho don’t like photographs being taken of their reservations, so I have respected this.

Sticking to our timetable we arrive into the Santa Fe railyard on time at 11.18. I’m greeted by freezing temperatures – no one told me it was much colder than Albuquerque here!

I spend a pleasant few hours shopping, eating and drinking in North America’s oldest capital before getting the Railrunner back ‘home’. The railyard district is really interesting but quiet today as it’s a cold February morning. It’s really busy here at the weekends, especially in the summer with farmers’ markets and street vendors.

Its fun to be on something very different from Amtrak today, but that’s not a criticism of Amtrak, just the fun and excitement of a bit of variety. If anything I’m now a bit bored of silver covered trains, and as a retired marketing man, I love the branding of the Railrunner. I had heard that it even had a ‘meep meep’ sound like the roadrunner cartoon, but I didn’t hear it today!

I’ve got used to watching ‘Wheel of Fortune’ on the television in the Amtrak lounge before catching trains at this time of the day. I’m getting good at it. The Sunset Limited is running half an hour late, so time to watch the whole show. It’s a friendly place, and everything is straightforward here.

I’m greeted by Melinda on the platform outside carriage 0130, which turns out to be an older design than I have seen before. It looks similar to the more common Superliner, but the toilets, switches and roomette design is slightly different. However, it’s biggest shortcoming is that although there are controls, the aircon system is either on jungle or iceberg setting, and no one in the carriage can agree which is better. The most obvious way to tell its an older coach is that it does not have an enclosed cupboard with coathangers in the roomette.

I make the last sitting in the dining car, which is run by the dream team, Eggi on announcements, seating and jokes, and John serving the food and wisecracks. Lovely people and it made the journey great fun. Next door in the sightseeing lounge, another John runs the cafe car.

I hopped off at a late-night stop in San Antonio, which I discovered to be full of dodgy people. Law and order here is down to armed guards on the platform. I had to answer a string of questions to get anywhere back near our train and wasn’t allowed to move freely to take my usual nightly photo of the engine.

When I wake early the next morning to Eggi whispering ‘waffles, coffee, pancakes’ on the intercom. I’m greeted by the sight of great plains, and glimpses of the Rio Grande over breakfast. Each meal on this train involves meeting three new people at the table, and you never know who you might sit next to. All but one of my fellow diners were really interesting, but you will have to read the book to find out what I did!

I hoped off in Alpine, Texas for some fresh air and almost had a heart attack when the train double-stopped. This is a procedure when on shorter platforms the train stops twice, moving forward a 100m or so. But the feeling of seeing the train slowly roll away from you isn’t for the faint-hearted!

We reached El Paso in the afternoon, and the infamous wall and the lawless Mexican town of Juarez over the border were right by the side of the line. As we set off, something was wrong back in the sightseeing lounge – we had left one passenger behind, but his partner and luggage were still on board. The sentiment amongst passengers here was mixed. The golden words are ‘always stay close to the train’, but you had to feel for him. Apparently he didn’t like flying, but now he would have to take a flight to Phoenix as the next train wasn’t for another three days.

We rumbled out of Texas after 20 hours crossing one state, and into Arizona to a train wide communal ‘yeee-haaa’. I have to say at this point I was in rail nirvana, and happily spent the afternoon taking photos of the amazing landscape and doing some writing.

A beer to watch the sunset, another fine meal in the dining car and bed after a stop in Tucson. Sleep came very easy, and I woke to the announcement we would be in LA in less than 10 minutes at 05.18 Pacific time ‘on the bumper’. See how I’m learning to speak Amtrak!

Union Station is quiet and well ordered, the only problem is there are no taxis at this time of the morning. But the team in the Amtrak lounge somehow got me one and sneaked it round the station to a secret lounge door. I have a long weekend in LA before getting back on the rails. Next stop hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque.

The Sunset Limited is a Superliner bound for LA, a not inconsiderable 1995 mile trip in over 48 hours. I was just on for the first 363 miles and 8 hours to Houston, Texas today.

I’m not going to beat about the bush, this was one of the best train journeys I have ever been on. The best Amtrak kit (a Superliner with full catering), amazing passengers and lovely professional and helpful Amtrak staff. An 8-hour trip seemed to last 8 minutes. What a day!

Good Amtrak staff set the tone, and here onboard everyone was keen to help, and it felt amazing. But the best moment of the day was when I asked my carriage attendant Paul about the dining car. ‘We got a Chef onboard’  he said proudly – my spirit lept!

Paul had his own supply of coffee on the go in the carriage and everything set up. Simple things like fresh pillows were in the roomette for my use during the day. He had time to announce extended stops and explain what was going on to me. This is the Amtrak service that I love.

I had lunch with a Mexican film producer & his wife, who was a rafting guide, and a quick dinner with an amazing US Marine Corp vet heading to San Diego before hopping off. You meet interesting people on trains, and they have time to talk. All thanks to the community seating system. I’ll share some of these stories in my book. But what about the food? Such a difference. Real food cooked by a chef. How many scheduled (regular) dining cars in the world ask the question ‘How would you like your steak cooked?’.

Mine was cooked perfectly to my request. I declined the obligatory ‘A1 sauce’ and enjoyed it with mustard, which the attendant couldn’t understand. He’d never tried mustard. The desert was equally good, cheesecake with strawberries and optional whipped cream.

Returning from a long lunch, a quick nap and some writing, and soon it was dinner time. Then far to soon we arrived in Houston on time at 18.20. I was sad to say goodbye to the attendants, chefs, fireman, and engineers who had all looked after me, answered my questions, and forgave my ‘East Texas’ accent. I’m back on board this train once I have completed my astronaut training, so really looking forward to it. Imagine getting on a train at about 18.30, and being asked what time you want to have a table for a freshly cooked dinner. Time to freshen up and have a drink in the observation lounge and get dressed! This is living ‘on the rails’ and it is what will make me want to return to try all the Amtrak routes west of the Mississipi in the USA. Thank you, Amtrak!

Checking my bag in takes a couple of minutes, and I’m quickly seated in the refurbished Metropolitan Lounge until the train is called about 40 minutes before departure.

A short walk to platform 18, where I’m greeted by a Superliner, a train made up of the Amtrak double-deck carriages. Mine tonight is 5900, where I’m greeted by Lala, who shows me upstairs to my roomette, number 5.

Departure is on time, and the train reverses out before changing direction and skirting round the outskirts of the windy city to head south. The good news is that this train has a double-deck dining car (now called a sleeper passenger lounge) and an observation car with panoramic views and a café/bar car beneath. The bad news is it’s the airline-style catering again.

At first glance, the Superliner roomettes look very similar to Viewliners, but on closer examination, the berths are slightly wider, as there is no en-suite commode. The controls are also different, and there is no wi-fi.

A Superliner has rooms on both decks – roomettes, bedrooms, and also even a family room downstairs, where there are also 4 bathrooms and a shower. I’m in a roomette up top tonight. People walk between carriages on the upper deck only, so it’s busier up here, but easier to get to the dining car next door. I think its quieter below, and there is also noticeably less sway and roll lower down.

Dinner is a disappointing Cajun rice bowl and a glass of Heineken after they send a search party to locate a bottle opener. But service is with more of a relaxed smile now compared to my last journey, where the dining atmosphere was like attending a lesson in primary school.

Lala makes my bed up whilst I’m having my click & ping meal, so when I return I have to unmake it, as its film club in here tonight – a double bill of ‘Live & Let Die’ and ‘Southern Comfort’. I’m going to discuss aspects of both in my next book. I also open a bottle of Oregan Pinot Noir which I brought with me. It’s okay to bring your own booze onto the train if you are in a sleeper, but not a public space. Wine is $8 for a miniature airline bottle in the bar, which seems on the pricey side when you add a tip, that’s $40 a bottle!

The sun rose in Memphis and I ate my breakfast sandwich (quite tasty) looking out over the Missouri plains. I have to place my lunch order before I can have my breakfast, and it’s hard to judge my stomach this early. I opt for the Asian noodle bowl and hope I have second-guessed what I might want in a few hour’s time. I also have to book a table time. Not because the dining car will be full, but so that they can manage all that cooking time in a single microwave oven. I’m rather pleased it’s my last train with this food system on board, as next week I shall be west of the Mississippi and on the proper dining setup.

The landscape and the weather have changed overnight and as we reach Louisiana it’s getting swampy. I even pass a station which has a pet alligator in a cage on the platform! This was my first experience of refueling an Amtrak train – they don’t swap the loco over like in Russia, but instead an oil tanker parks up opposite on the road and they pipe the fuel on. This takes about 20 minutes.

The final manoeuvre into New Orleans is a reverse shunt into the station. For some reason, this requires a test emergency stop, and everyone has to sit down preparing for something like out the film ‘Unstoppable’, which is actually so mild we didn’t notice it. So we are on the bumper 20 minutes early. Over a 20 hour journey, I imagine the on-time arrival is largely down to the potential delay of freight trains, so its very much luck of the draw.

A couple of days to explore the local cuisine before heading over to Texas next week!

In 2017 I took a trip across the USA by train. I had very low expectations at the time, mainly because social media had brainwashed me into believing that Amtrak was no longer any good and that American citizens were too busy with political infighting and building walls to welcome visitors. I’m glad I went, as I discovered this was totally false. I loved travelling with Amtrak, and everyone I met along the way was so positive, interesting and friendly. In just a couple of weeks, I was a changed person. I found myself discussing literature over lunch with deep thinking Amish people, ‘high-fiving’ conductors and talking about NFL score predictions to total strangers over amazing craft beer. So I vowed back then to come back and spend more time discovering more of what makes America tick, on and off the rails. As Ringo Starr once said, ‘America: It’s like Britain, only with buttons’. So true.

I think there is a book in this, so I’m planning several trips so that I can travel on as many of the iconic routes as possible. My second of these is almost a coast to coast and back to the first coast again, a long loop from NYC and Chicago down south and then west before returning to Chicago. I have set up a USA Southern Loop page in the ‘adventures’ section of my website, which contains a route map and the trains I am planning to take. Looking at the distance, it’s a lot further than my first coast to coast trip, which was around 3400 miles. This one is 6347 miles on the rails. Nearly all my journeys are on sleepers, both east and west of the Mississippi, so I will experience viewliners, superliners, full community restaurant eating and also the new stripped-back catering style. My thanks to John Blower at Trailfinders, for his assistance with the rail and ground arrangements. He has made my travel plans so easy that I have been able to work on researching the history of the American railroad and making contacts in some of the places I plan to visit.

If you have read any of my books you will appreciate that some of the fun stuff stays out of the blog, so it’s more fresh and fun when I can reveal the full story. So I plan to blog as I travel with the nuts and bolts of the journey, but save the ‘experiences’ that I have planned along the way for the book. I have a working title for it in my mind, but I’m not revealing it just yet. So what goes on tour will stay on tour until the book gets published! I have a particular interest in linking local culture – books, films, food and music – to the trains. Looking at my route do you have any suggestions for things that are a ‘must-see’?