NaN/100 votesLoading...#1 - Burlington to Plattsburgh
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 1/29/2018
Michael Portillo continues his American rail journey through New England as he heads for the Canadian border. First stop is Burlington, Vermont, a busy timber port at the time of his Appleton's guide. Michael ventures deep into the forest to learn how sustainable and technological innovations have transformed the state's billion dollar logging industry. Following the old trade route across Lake Champlain, he hears of a pivotal battle during the War of 1812 where a British defeat gave the United States a new confidence on the world stage. In Plattsburg, Michael learns of the surprising origins of a classic Christmas carol. Lead by his guidebook, he travels into the wilderness of the Adirondack Mountains. Here the rich and famous of Appleton's day established great camps to get back to nature, in the lap of luxury. He visits the largest of the camps, reached by boat and even a private funicular railway. In Lake Placid, Michael braves the steep curves and speeds of an Olympic bobsleigh run. Last stop is an American fort mistakenly built in Canada!
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#2 - Skagway to Vancouver
Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 2/8/2020
Michael Portillo embarks on a second spectacular rail journey through Alaska into Canada on the White Pass and Yukon railway. Arriving in Skagway by seaplane from railwayless Juneau, Michael heads first for Dyea and the Chilkoot trail, which the first gold prospectors hiked 100 years ago to the Klondike. Among them, he discovers, was author Jack London, whose stories of sled dogs captured the spirit of the gold rush. In the puppy pen of a sled dog training camp, a dog musher tells Michael how huskies helped to build Alaska and gives him an insight into how the dogs continue to work and race today. Boarding the 52-mile railway, built in 1898, which climbs 2,600 feet before dropping to the head of Canada’s Lake Bennett, Michael looks forward to beautiful scenery on a railway laden with history. At the lake, Michael meets an indigenous guide to hear of the role of First Nations people in the stampede for gold.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#3 - Vancouver Island to Kamloops
Season 4 Episode 4 - Aired 2/15/2020
Michael Portillo explores British Columbia, steered by his Appleton’s Guide to Canada, published in 1899. He discovers how two superpowers nearly came to war over a pig and joins the Royal Canadian Navy to firefight on board the frigate HMCS Regina. Starting on Vancouver Island, Michael explores the rich British heritage and colonial past of the provincial capital of British Columbia, Victoria. He discovers the origins of the immensely powerful fur-trading enterprise, the Hudson’s Bay Company and, in the affluent James Bay area of Victoria, he finds the former home of an early 20th-century artist who documented the art and culture of the indigenous people of the western coast, Emily Carr. At Saanichton, Michael helps to carve a 36-foot totem pole in the studio of a present-day First Nations artist. In the wilderness of British Columbia,
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#4 - Kamloops to Calgary
Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 2/22/2020
Clutching his 1899 Appleton’s Guide, Michael Portillo boards one of the world’s most famous trains, the Rocky Mountaineer, to cross the backbone of the North American continent from Kamloops to the spa resort of Banff. This magnificent journey takes him to the highest point of the 19th-century transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway line at Kicking Horse Pass, past Lake Louise and inside spiral tunnels blasted through the mountains. Along the way, Michael hears of the harsh and dangerous conditions endured by the Chinese and European labourers who built the railway. He looks back at the historic driving of the Last Spike, which completed the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885. Reaching Banff, Michael follows his Appleton’s guide to the luxurious Banff Spring Hotel, built by the railway company. By Sulphur Mountain, he explores an underground hot spring discovered by railway workers in 1883 and learns how it prompted the creation of Canada’s first national park.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#5 - Halifax to Prince Edward Island
Season 4 Episode 6 - Aired 2/29/2020
Michael Portillo begins a new journey on the tracks of the Ocean line to explore Canada’s maritime provinces en route to Quebec City. Clutching his 1899 Appleton’s Guide to Canada, he begins in the Atlantic port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he discovers an 18th-century British hilltop citadel, manned at the time of his guide by the 78th Highland Regiment. Michael joins the men who recreate the roles of those Scottish soldiers today. At the mercy of the young 'sergeant major', Michael learns the drill in kilt and sporran. Michael follows his Appleton’s to a vast Victorian dry dock, still in use today by shipbuilders for the Royal Canadian Navy and finds out what it takes to build a state-of-the-art Arctic Patrol vessel. He learns of a catastrophic explosion in Halifax harbour in 1917, which killed 2,000 people and left 25,000 homeless. Former residents of an African-Canadian community torn in two by the railway tell Michael of their struggle for redress.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#6 - Springhill Junction to Quebec City
Season 4 Episode 7 - Aired 3/7/2020
Clutching his 1899 copy of Appleton’s Guide to Canada, Michael Portillo travels on the Ocean train from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick. Along the way, he investigates the world’s biggest tide at Hopewell Rocks and admires its dramatic rock formations and caves. Michael apparently defies gravity on a magnetic hill in a 1965 Pontiac Bonneville. North of Moncton in Miramichi, he joins the Elsipogtog First Nation in a pow wow, where he learns about quilting and traditional dress. In Amherst, Michael investigates the history of an ambitious ship railway designed to ferry ships by rail over the isthmus between the Bay of Fundy and the Northumberland Strait. He quarries highly-prized Wallace sandstone for a 150-year-old family firm.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
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#7 - Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre to Winnipeg
Season 4 Episode 8 - Aired 3/14/2020
Michael Portillo explores the province of Quebec with his 19th-century Appleton’s Guide to Canada. He takes the fabulously scenic Charlevoix train along the north bank of the mighty St Lawrence River to La Malbaie. Following his guidebook to the beautiful basilica at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre, Michael discovers the racks of crutches discarded by the healed and meets modern-day visitors in search of miracles. The Train de Charlevoix, built to transport pilgrims, now conveys tourists along the north bank of the St Lawrence River to the Murray lakes. Michael tours the fine 19th-century houses, which were once the haunt of the Gatsby generation. Taking to the skies in a seaplane, Michael flies over the Laurentian Mountains to land on an isolated lake, where he fishes for trout for his supper.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
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#8 - Portage la Prairie to Saskatoon
Season 4 Episode 9 - Aired 3/21/2020
Steered by his 1899 Appleton’s Guide, Michael Portillo strikes west across Manitoba into the province of Saskatchewan. High above the prairie at Riding Mountain, Michael discovers how a middle-class British boy from Hastings transformed himself into an influential indigenous naturalist called Grey Owl. Deep in the prairie, Michael finds a network of railways that once served the wheat farmers of Saskatchewan and learns how communities grew up around the grain elevators used to load the crop on to rail wagons. The Wheatland Express welcomes a new recruit to the sidings on the afternoon shift. At Manitou Beach, Michael reaches the Dead Sea of Canada, a 14-mile lake three times saltier than the ocean. A Yellow Quill First Nations elder tells Michael about the healing properties of the water, and Michael tries it for himself.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
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#9 - Edmonton to Jasper
Season 4 Episode 10 - Aired 3/28/2020
Michael Portillo continues west through the Canadian Prairie on his thousand-mile rail journey from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Jasper, Alberta. Following his 1899 Appleton’s guide, Michael explores a glossy, glassy, oil-rich Edmonton, second city of Alberta. On the banks of the North Saskatchewan River, he travels three centuries back in time to experience the life of les voyageurs, who travelled huge distances within Canada by foot and canoe to trade fur with indigenous people. Michael admires Edmonton’s early 20th-century heritage streetcars, preserved by the Radial Railway Society, and seizes the chance to drive one across a spectacular high-level bridge over the North Saskatchewan River. Edmonton prides itself on its modern light rail system, offering rapid transit to 80 million passengers per year. Michael hears how this growing city plans to keep pace. His journey across Canada’s vast open spaces reaches a dramatic scenic conclusion in the Rocky Mountains.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votesLoading...#10 - Vancouver
Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 1/21/2019
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
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#11 - Vancouver Island to San Juan Island
Season 4 Episode 12 - Aired 1/22/2019
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
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#12 - Port Moody to Kamloops
Season 4 Episode 13 - Aired 1/23/2019
No description available
Director: N/A
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#13 - Kamloops to Banff
Season 4 Episode 14 - Aired 1/24/2019
No description available
Director: N/A
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#16 - Portage La Prairie to Watrous
Season 4 Episode 17 - Aired 1/29/2019
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
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#17 - Saskatoon
Season 4 Episode 18 - Aired 1/30/2019
No description available
Director: N/A
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#19 - Hinton to Jasper
Season 4 Episode 20 - Aired 2/1/2019
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.3/107 votesLoading...#20 - Toronto
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 2/2/2018
Michael Portillo's railway journey across eastern Canada concludes in the nation's largest metropolis, Toronto. He begins his Toronto tour at Union Station. Now busier than the city's international airport, Michael is shown the ambitious engineering works underground to support the growing number of commuters. From the dig down, he boldly goes to the dizzying heights at the CN Tower for an extreme outdoor experience at the top of the structure. Nerves are calmed at the Royal York Hotel, one of a network of luxury hotels built by the railway known as the 'castles of the north'. Catching the street car, Michael finds out how Toronto made itself a magnet for money after it set up its own stock exchange, but not before he presses the button to open the day's trading. Ending his time in the city's High Park, he seeks out the origins of a celebrated Canadian song that helped to shape the maple leaf as the country's national symbol.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
6.5/1011 votesLoading...#21 - Baltimore to Fort McHenry
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 2/15/2016
In Baltimore, home of the first railroad in the United States, the Baltimore and Ohio, he discovers how the first American steam engine, the Tom Thumb, owed much to pioneering British technology. He investigates race relations in the troubled city, taking a drive downtown with a former drug dealer, now a teacher. On the city's beautiful east coast, Michael discovers the impressive star-shaped Fort McHenry and learns how the Star-Spangled Banner national anthem was born. Medics at the city's Johns Hopkins Hospital show Michael how their institution has grown from its 19th-century foundation by the railroad magnate into a world-leading centre for healthcare. And at the city's Lexington Market, Michael learns what gives a Maryland crab cake the edge.
Director: Dave Minchin
Writer: N/A
6.7/1014 votesLoading...#22 - Manhattan: Lower East Side to World Trade Center
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 2/2/2016
Michael continues his American journey in Manhattan's Lower East Side, where he narrowly avoids a scrap with an historic gang of New York and visits the grim tenement buildings where thousands of the city's immigrants lived and worked. In the West Side, Michael discovers how a once lethal run of track has been transformed into a public park, raised above the city streets. Forsaking the rails for a ferry, Michael heads for Ellis Island, where some 12 million immigrants entered America. Michael is given a privileged tour of the gleaming new transport hub under construction close to the site of Ground Zero.
Director: Tom Richardson
Writer: N/A
6.7/108 votesLoading...#23 - Thousand Islands to Oshawa, Ontario
Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 2/1/2018
Using his 1899 Appleton's guide, Michael Portillo's rail odyssey through eastern Canada continues along the Grand Trunk railway, following the route of the St Lawrence River. At Brockville, he leaves the tracks for a nautical pilgrimage through the beautiful Thousand Islands. In the port city of Kingston, Ontario, Michael visits Fort Henry and, dressed for the occasion, is entrusted to fire the naval guns that protected the nation's southern border during the 19th century. Travelling west to Port Hope, he learns of the antics of a celebrated 19th-century high-wire walker known as The Great Farini. And, in the spirit of showmanship, Michael tests his balance with the modern sport of slack lining. This leg of the journey ends in Oshawa at the opulent home of the McLaughlin family, who helped build a new economy for Canada when they switched from manufacturing carriages to motor cars.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
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#24 - Santa Clara to Santa Cruz
Season 3 Episode 16 - Aired 2/12/2018
Michael Portillo's thousand-mile rail journey through California continues south toward Santa Clara in the heart of Silicon Valley and ends in the surf of Santa Cruz. In a high-tech bar, where robots wait on the customers, Michael traces the origins of modern-day search engines and social media to an institution founded by a railroad baron. At tech giant Intel, Michael glimpses the future on a test drive in an autonomous car. At San Jose, the biggest city in the valley, Michael visits Japantown to meet members of a far eastern community who settled here peacefully during the 19th century but faced hostility during the mid-20th. He is then beaten over the head and body by youngsters a third of his age as he attempts to learn the martial art of kendo. A ride aboard the Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad takes Michael through groves of mammoth trees - the magnificent California Redwoods. Emerging from the forest on a second vintage railroad, Michael hits the beach and like a true beach boy, he takes to the waves - on a surfboard.
Director: Dave Minchin
Writer: N/A
6.8/1013 votesLoading...#25 - Lancaster to Gettysburg
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 2/11/2016
Michael hitches a ride with the Amish in a horse-drawn buggy through rich countryside settled in the 18th century by religiously oppressed Europeans. Charmed by their modest way of life, he watches as they sell their beautiful quilts at auction. In Strasburg, known as Traintown USA, Michael joins the crew of the oldest continuously operated railroad in the United States. After oiling the magnificent engine, he rides on the footplate of the vintage steam locomotive. His last stop on this leg is Gettysburg, the most famous battlefield of the American Civil War, where, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made a momentous speech.
Director: Dave Minchin
Writer: N/A
The Worst Episodes of Great American Railroad Journeys
Every episode of Great American Railroad Journeys ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Great American Railroad Journeys!
Michael Portillo crosses the Atlantic to ride the railroads of America, armed with Appleton's General Guide to the United States, published in 1879.
Genre:Documentary
Network:BBC Two
Worst Episodes Summary
"Burlington to Plattsburgh" is the worst rated episode of "Great American Railroad Journeys". It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Cassie Farrell and written by N/A, it aired on 1/29/2018. This episode scored NaN points lower than the second lowest rated, "Skagway to Vancouver".