A captivating journey blending memoir, history, and biography that takes the reader on one of the world's most famous trains and tells of carving the dramatic route it follows, while pondering other international railways through the eyes of travellers past and present.

Rick Antonson has ridden trains in more than thirty-five countries—but almost everything he thinks he knows about train travel changes when he boards the Rocky Mountaineer with his ten-year-old grandson, Riley. As they wind over trestles and through tunnels, each mile of track uncovers stories of dynamite and discovery, surveyors and schemers, explorers and visionaries, and the people who helped to build Canada against the odds of geography and politics. Surrounded by a wild landscape that sparks imagination, fellow passengers recount train travels in other countries, get nostalgic for the era of steam locomotives, and consider life’s unfinished journeys.

Peppered with spirited dialogue, heartrending vignettes, and intriguing anecdotes, Train Beyond the Mountains is a travelogue with urgency: to make your travel dreams happen now. As one passenger muses, "The mistake we make is that we think we have time."

Born in Vancouver in 1949, Rick Antonson attended Simon Fraser University and started Antonson Publishing and Nunaga Publishing in the early 1970s. In the mid-1980s Rick worked as vice-president and general manager of Douglas & McIntyre, also serving as president of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia. He left publishing to become vice president of the Great Canadian Railtour Company Ltd., operating a train service between Vancouver and the Canadian Rockies. This led to his role as president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver. Rick has also served as chairman of the Oceans Blue Foundation, a group that works to encourage a more environmentally responsible approach to tourism in the Pacific Northwest. Rick was on the Board of Directors for Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Olympic Winter Games Bid Corporation and has served as co-chairman for the BC Special Olympics.

Rick Antonson's profile page

"[Antonson]... demonstrates the benefits of the slow speed of train travel... As a personal account of a trip on one of Canada’s remaining passenger trains and as a history of rail travel in Canada, there’s much to enjoy here."
—Winnipeg Free Press

“Antonson’s travels with grandson Riley remind me of John Steinbeck’s classic Travels With Charley, this time exchanging the open road of America for steel rails rolling through Canada’s vast geography and history.”
—Michael McCarthy, author of The Snow Leopard Return

“Rick Antonson is an unconventionally skilled writer; an extraordinary wordsmith and storyteller with an imagination off the chart. Rick’s latest book, Train Beyond The Mountains, transcends any travelogue I’ve ever read, unfolding as a mystic journey with his grandson through time and the mountains. His prose is magical, transporting me from my living room onto the train, back into history and to a participant in his conversations with other onboard guests. I savored the experience as if I was there. It is a wondrous journey!”
—Terry Gainer, author of When Trains Ruled The Rockies

"A delightful account that will surprise even those well-versed in the rich lore of the region. Antonson's latest chronicle presents the kind of historical, geographic, and character anecdotes that are both expressive and illuminating."
—David Laurence Jones, author of Railway Nation