Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways

Chris heads to the Arctic to explore a railway which probably should never have been built, the Alaska Railroad. Constructed when the USA's largest state was barely populated, Chris wants to find out why it has become such a success. But travelling at the tail end of winter with few trains, completing his journey to the end of the line in Alaska's frozen interior is not going to be easy.

Chris travels by train across a thousand-mile stretch of Argentina to the heart of Patagonia. In the heyday of its "Belle Époque" this country boasted one of the largest and finest railways in the world, largely funded and built by the British.

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.

Chris travels the length of the historic Trans-Caucasus Railway from the flaming towers of Baku on the shores of the Caspian to the port of Batumi on the Black Sea. He explores this railway built in the days of the Russian Empire in a region that for decades was part of the Soviet Union.

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.