Our rail experts pick their favourite epic journeys, from the Trans-Siberian to InterRail adventures. 

Moscow to Beijing 

Riding the traditional Trans-Siberian, where you’re stuck in a carriage for six nights longing to explore the cathedrals, lakes and taiga tempting from your window, can be galling. That makes Regent’s slow tour through Siberia on the Trans-Mongolian an inspired choice. After three days in Moscow it’s overnight to Yekaterinburg for wooden churches, birth forest and the bloody history of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Three more days of rail travel brings passengers to Irkutsk, a Eurasian gem and base for Lake Baikal. Then it’s back on the rails for stops and tours in Ulaanbaatar and Beijing. 

Regent (0117 321 0167; regent-holidays.co.uk) operates the 16-night tour from £2,740, including a flight home from Beijing. 

Persia and the Silk Road 

This year luxury train operator Golden Eagle celebrates 30 years in business with a double first. Brand-new Imperial Suites (read king-size beds and underfloor heating) are used on a completely new route through Persia and the Silk Road (modern-day Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). The cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva reek of dastardly emirs and Great Game mystique. Later the Golden Eagle enters the Persian Empire to visit seldom-seen sights like the newly inscribed Unesco city of Yazd, plus the eerie Shahdad Desert, alongside must-sees Shiraz and Isfahan. 

Golden Eagle (0161 928 9410; goldeneagleluxurytrains.com) operates the 15-night trip from £15,195, departing October 2019. Price includes quality meals and fine wines (which are locked away while touring the Islamic Republic of Iran). 

Chepe Express, Mexico

The Chihuahua-Pacific Railway, also known as El Chepe, runs 418 miles (673km) from Chihuahua to Los Mochis on the Sea of Cortez. As well as the main regional train, a six-coach Chepe Express, with a bar and viewing terrace, does a shorter nine-hour trip (a little above 217 miles/350km), focusing on the Copper Canyon – the northern valley of the Río Urique, a cold, shadowy 6,560ft deep. Winding through dramatic gorges, the track passes through 86 tunnels and crosses 37 bridges, though you only get a glimpse of the canyon. 

The shorter trip costs from MX$3,743 (£150) one way; the full trip is 15½ hours (chepe.com.mx/trenes/horarios-tarifas).

California Zephyr, US

In the year that America celebrates the 150th anniversary of the First Transcontinental Railroad, which connected east with west, lovers of epic train journeys will be drawn to the California Zephyr, the 2,438-mile (3,924km) ride between Chicago and Emeryville/San Francisco via Denver and Salt Lake City. The journey, which takes just under 52 hours, covers the original Transcontinental Railroad route from Sacramento to Winnemucca, Nevada.

For how to book the Amtrak-operated California Zephyr and other US coast-to-coast rail services, see seat61.com.  

Canadian tour – take your pick

The trouble with epic journeys by rail across Canada is which to choose – the Canadian that goes all the way from Toronto to Vancouver, or the Rocky Mountaineer, which offers a number of shorter trips into the mountains from its base in Vancouver. Can’t decide? Cox & Kings has a new private tour including trips on both trains, a tour of Niagara Falls, a scenic tour of Banff and an excursion on Athabasca glacier. 

Cox & Kings (0203 642 0861; coxandkings.co.uk) offers the 12-night Vancouver to Toronto by Rail from £3,495pp with three nights aboard The Canadian, nine nights’ accommodation with breakfast daily and SilverLeaf service aboard Rocky Mountaineer. 

Great southern Australia

To Australia’s two luxury all-inclusive tourist trains, the Indian Pacific and the Ghan, will this year be added a third, the Great Southern, which will travel between Brisbane and Adelaide from December. The choice of direction determines the off-train excursions and number of nights on board. The two-night northbound option departs from Adelaide and travels through the rugged mountain ranges of the Grampians, stops in the country’s capital of Canberra and, skirting Sydney, reaches the Pacific Ocean in New South Wales for a “Beachside Experience” before arrival in Brisbane. Southbound trains from Brisbane enjoy a late afternoon run beside the sea along the New South Wales coast, a tour of Hunter Valley vineyards and an excursion along the Great Ocean Road.

From £1,312 (0061 8 8213 4401; greatsouthernrail.com.au). 

The Ghan, Australia

The train taking its name from the historic cameleers of northern Australia – supposedly from Afghanistan though actually from north-west India – runs the 1,851 miles (2,979km) from Adelaide through the country’s “red centre” to Alice Springs and Darwin. The year-round two-night option offers stops at Katherine for a boat ride between the towering limestone walls of the crocodile-populated Nitmiluk Gorge and at Alice Springs. The seasonal southbound-only three-night tour includes a day at the underground opal-mining town of Coober Pedy.

From £1,196 (0061 8 8213 4401; greatsouthernrail.com.au). 

Ferrocarril Central, Peru

An improbable feat of Victorian engineering that blasted through mountains, clung to precipices and spanned gut-churning gorges in the Peruvian Andes to climb higher than any standard-gauge railway in the world. In an epic 200-mile (320km) journey from Lima to the mountain market town of Huancayo it negotiates tunnels, bridges and zigzag sections to a pass 15,681ft above sea level. Staff include a nurse with oxygen.

Journey Latin America offers a three-day package for £746pp including return train ticket from Lima, accommodation and trips to mountain villages (020 8600 1881; journeylatinamerica.co.uk).  

InterRail, Europe

An epic, a series of short hops, a mix of night trains and day trains: the InterRail is what you make it. Best not to keep moving all the time (under-26s do this to sleep on trains and save on hostels) and it pays to choose a loop and a region or two at most. Bear in mind that sleepers and some fast trains incur surcharges. Swiss trains are the most efficient. Spain’s AVEs and Alvias are super-fast. Slower eastern-rolling stock still rocks with that pleasant train movement. A life-enhancer at any stage in life, and a celebration of Europe’s rail network, glorious stations and common passions and bonds.

Passes range from five days in 15 to a month’s continuous travel and cost from €208 to €510 (interrail.eu/en).  

Tiger Express, south-east Asia

Like the endangered species itself, the Tiger Express – a train journey on Belmond’s languorously luxurious Eastern & Oriental Express, will be a rare beast to behold in 2019. The plan is to run a special version of the signature Singapore to Bangkok journey departing on September 8. The aim of the journey, planned in conjunction with the charity Save Wild Tigers, the aim will be to raise awareness of the plight of (and funds to help preserve) these magnificent creatures. The Chinese artist Jacky Tsai will be adding a tiger motif to two of the exteriors of the train’s carriages and the journey will pass through the heart of the historic tiger territories in Malaysia and Thailand.

To express interest, contact Belmond directly (0845 077 2222; belmond.com).

Vivek Express, India

Indian train journeys come no more epic than a trip on the Vivek Express. It travels more than 2,600 miles (4,185km) from the tea-planting town of Dibrugarh in Assam, in the far north-east (almost on the Burmese border), to Kanyakumari in the far south, where thousands gather every day to watch the sun rise. The journey starts on Saturday night and ends the following Wednesday morning. On the way the train makes 56 stops and gives a slowly unfolding panorama of the changing landscapes of eastern India. It costs around £45 in Second Class AC compartments (bedding is provided). Take a toothbrush.

For details on prices and how to book, see seat61.com

Contributions by Tristan Rutherford, Steve McClarence, Anthony Lambert, Danielle Demetriou, Adrian Bridge, Chris Moss and Gavin Bell