Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways - Episode Guide

From Bangkok to Mandalay, Chris's journey takes him nearly 2,000 miles through some extraordinary places, rich in history and culture as well as stunning scenery, on a series of trains that push his love of travelling by rail to the limits.

From the tiny coastal town of Tocopilla, Chris rides one of the steepest railways in the world as he scales the first 1,000 metres of the Andes.

Chris sets out to reach the northernmost railway station on Earth in an epic 2000-mile adventure from Moscow into Arctic Siberia.

Chris attempts to cross the length of Cuba, the only island in the Caribbean to boast an extensive railway network, from Havana in the west to the far east of the island.

Chris journeys a thousand miles across Japan to find out if Japanese railways really are the best in the world. Along the way he meets one of the great architects of the bullet trains, a singing conductress and atomic bomb survivors who kept wartime trams running.

Chris discovers how a 2,500-mile transcontinental railway was built against huge odds in just a few decades, and turned a vast wilderness of isolated communities into the country we now know as Canada.

Chris heads to the Arctic to explore the Alaska Railroad.

Chris talks to gauchos in the Pampas lowlands, meets Falklands veterans in Bahia Blanca, and takes in the beauty of Patagonia.

Documentary series in which Chris Tarrant explores the world's most extreme railway lines. Chris travels 1500 miles from Cape Town in South Africa across Botswana to the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, following the route of a mind-bogglingly ambitious railway pioneered by controversial 19th century British Colonialist, Cecil Rhodes.

Documentary series in which Chris Tarrant explores the world's most extreme railway lines. Chris travels on the historically Soviet Trans-Caucasus Railway, beginning in the Azerbaijani city of Baku before exploring the Geogian capital Tbilisi's vintage metro system, then a mountain rail bridge designed by Eiffel, and finally a tunnel reputed to be held together with egg yolk.

Chris travels 1800 miles across Scandinavia and Finland in the middle of winter, braving deep snow, sub-zero temperatures and hardly any light. He's on a mission to find out how war, iron ore and a certain Lapland living red suited gentlemen inspired the Scandinavians to build an extreme railway network that operates deep into the Arctic Circle 365 days a year.

Chris traverses Morocco from west to east before heading off into the sands of the Sahara to discover whether a legendary line that stretches all the way to Timbuktu really exists.

In an attempt to cross three former Soviet republics entirely by rail in one week, Chris navigates his way on trains across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, en route discovering amazing stories and dark secrets from the region's war-ravaged past.

Chris attempts to cross the five countries of the Balkan region in six days. Travelling from Slovenia to Montenegro, via Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, he discovers how the former state-run Yugoslav railways in Tito's days are faring since their break-up in the 1990s, goes in search of Tito's famous blue train and talks to some fascinating local people en route.

From the deserts of Lawrence of Arabia, Chris follows the route of the Hejaz Railway up through Jordan, before crossing the border into Israel. He's headed for the holiest city of all-Jerusalem.

Chris Tarrant boards some of the highest and steepest trains that cross the Alps, including one that tackles the 965m high Semmering Pass, the Arlberg Line that traverses an avalanche zone, and two incredibly steep cog railways.

Chris Tarrant embarks on a thousand-mile journey across Spain's complex rail system, discovering how the railways were involved in tension over Gibraltar, the Spanish Civil War and WWII. But Spain has quietly become a world leader in train technology.

Chris Tarrant embarks on a journey across Ukraine, where he travels on the most bizarre rail vehicle he has ever encountered. In Kiev, he learns about the forced famine of the 1930s, meets a soldier from the ongoing civil war and visits the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history at Chernobyl.

New series. The broadcaster returns, beginning by travelling across Europe to examine the train's role in the First World War. In Northumberland, he enjoys a ride on a preserved locomotive to find out how important the railways were to Britain for mobilisation of troops and the operation of large training camps around the country. Aboard a holiday train commandeered to transport troops and ammunition, Chris tells the stories of two opposing soldiers, one English and one German, who both took trains to the Somme in 1916.

Boarding a train in Budapest, Chris takes a mid-winter trip through Transylvania in search of the truth behind the story of Dracula and to find out how well the region's railway networks - which were meticulously described in Bram Stoker's 1897 classic novel - survived. Along the way he visits a place that is claimed to be the world's spookiest wood, stops off at the birthplace of the gruesome Vlad the Impaler and heads to Bucharest to look at the vast edifices of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Chris travels through Turkey, reflecting on the achievements of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - the founder of the republic who oversaw the modernisation of the country and its railways. He begins his journey at Istanbul railway station, the starting point of the Marmaray rail tunnel, which passes beneath the Bosphorus and was built to withstand earthquakes. He also visits Ankara and the volcanic spires of Cappadocia, before heading deep into the mountains and ending in the remote borderlands city of Kars.

Chris sets out on a mission to visit all four corners of Ireland in just six days, on an ageing network that has seen better days. His journey starts in the south-west at Cobh in Co Cork and his first stop is Blarney Castle, where Chris kisses the famous stone, before he heads to the west coast to ride on an old local line saved by an eccentric local millionaire. He heads to Dublin to visit the jail made famous by the Easter Rising, before ending in Belfast, where he ponders what the future may hold for the railways and for Ireland.

Chris arrives in Mombasa to follow what was surely the greatest railway endeavour of the entire colonial era - the so-called Lunatic Line. His plan is to follow the now-crumbling line right across Kenya to the shores of Lake Victoria, discovering how the constructors overcame obstacles in their bid to make East Africa part of the British Empire.

Traveling through three countries from Nuremberg to Auschwitz, Chris Tarrant explores the darkest chapter in the history of the railways - their role in the Nazi Holocaust of WWII.