The railways on this list exist because somebody decided a mountain range, a canyon or a jungle was not going to be an obstacle. They are engineering arguments as much as journeys: the Semmering line over the Alps in 1854 was the first mountain railway in the world and is a UNESCO site for that reason alone, and the Bernina crosses a 2,253 m pass with no rack and no cable, just a gradient held at 7% and curves tight enough that the train sees its own tail.
What a train gives you that nothing else does is a continuous view at a speed you can read. You are not driving, so you look out of the window for four hours instead of at the road; the line was surveyed for gradient rather than for a destination, so it goes through the valleys rather than over them; and in most of these places the railway arrived before the road and the villages along it are still shaped around the station.
Almost all of them run year-round and can be ridden as an ordinary ticketed service rather than a tourist product — which is usually cheaper, less crowded and better. Where a "panoramic" version exists it means bigger windows and reserved seats, not a different route. Sit on the correct side; on most of these lines one side has the view and the other has a rock wall.
Where on Earth it's best
1
★ Signature spotBernina & Albula lines — Chur to TiranoSwitzerland / ItalyA UNESCO World Heritage railway that climbs from 429 m to the 2,253 m Bernina Pass and drops to 429 m again on the Italian side — the steepest adhesion railway in the world, worked without a rack. It crosses the Landwasser Viaduct, a 65 m curved arch that runs straight into a tunnel mouth in a cliff face, and spirals through the Brusio circular viaduct in open air to lose height. The Glacier Express shares the Albula section and is the slowest express train in the world, taking eight hours to cover 291 km.It is on the World Heritage list as engineering, not scenery. The scenery is what the engineering was for. Year-round, and genuinely different in each: deep snow above Alp Grüm from December to April, wildflowers in June, larch gold in October. 2
Flåm Railway & the Bergen LineNorwayTwenty kilometres from Myrdal at 866 m down to sea level at the head of the Aurlandsfjord, on a gradient of 1 in 18 — one of the steepest standard-gauge lines anywhere — through twenty tunnels, eighteen of them hand-dug. Year-round; the Kjosfossen waterfall stop only runs in summer, and winter is snowbound and near-empty. 3
West Highland Line — Glasgow to MallaigUnited KingdomRannoch Moor, where the track floats on a raft of brushwood and ash laid over peat bog because there was no bottom to build on, and the 21-arch Glenfinnan Viaduct curving above the loch. Year-round; the Jacobite steam service runs roughly April to October and is the crowded option. 4
Semmering RailwayAustriaThe first mountain railway in the world, opened in 1854, built with 14 tunnels and 16 viaducts by hand before anyone knew whether a locomotive could hold a mountain gradient at all. UNESCO listed it in 1998 — the first railway to be listed anywhere. Year-round; autumn colour on the Rax and Schneeberg is the best of it. 5
Darjeeling Himalayan RailwayIndiaTwo-foot gauge, 1881, and still worked by British-built B-class steam locomotives. It climbs 2,000 m using loops and five zig-zag reverses, and at Batasia it spirals a full circle to gain height, with Kanchenjunga behind. March–May and October–November. The monsoon triggers landslides that close the line for weeks. 6
Rocky Mountaineer — Vancouver to Banff / JasperCanadaThe Spiral Tunnels at Kicking Horse Pass, where the line loops through the mountain twice to lose gradient — on a long train you can watch your own locomotive emerging below you. April to October only. The service does not run in winter. 7
Copper CanyonChihuahua, MexicoSix hundred and fifty kilometres across the Sierra Madre through 86 tunnels and 37 bridges, into a canyon system four times the size of the Grand Canyon and home to the Rarámuri, the long-distance running people of northern Mexico. October to April for clear air; the summer rains bring green and haze.8
Tren a las NubesArgentinaThe Train to the Clouds climbs to 4,220 m and crosses the La Polvorilla viaduct — 224 m long and 63 m high, standing on a curve in the middle of the altiplano with nothing around it. April to November (the dry season). Services are limited and often weekend-only. 9
Belgrade–Bar lineSerbia / MontenegroFour hundred and seventy-six kilometres, 254 tunnels and 435 bridges, including the Mala Rijeka viaduct — at 198 m it was the highest railway bridge in the world when it opened in 1976. Built by Yugoslavia to reach the sea, and still an ordinary working train. Year-round; the Montenegrin section is spectacular under snow. 10
Kurobe Gorge RailwayJapanA 762 mm construction railway built to service dams in a gorge so steep there is still no road — open-sided carriages, 41 tunnels and 22 bridges in 20 km, and hot springs at the far end reachable no other way. Late April to November only; the gorge is closed by snow all winter. Autumn colour in late October and early November is the peak. 11
Serra Verde Express — Curitiba to MorretesBrazilBuilt in the 1880s down the Serra do Mar escarpment through Atlantic rainforest — 110 km, 14 tunnels and 30 bridges, including a viaduct clamped to a vertical rock face above a 400 m drop. Year-round; the coastal forest is clearest April to September, and mist is common in summer. 12
The Ghan — Darwin to AdelaideAustraliaTwo thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine kilometres straight up the middle of a continent, named after the Afghan cameleers who ran the route before the railway did. For most of two days there is nothing outside the window at all, which is the experience. April to October. Summer in central Australia is above 40 °C and the wet season floods the top end.