Amazing Railway Adventures with Nick Knowles

The presenter experiences the wonders of the world, by train. First, he heads to Mexico, where he travels on a route from the Pacific coastline at Sinaloa through the incredible Copper Canyon to Creel in Chihuahua. Before boarding his train, Nick visits Topolobampo, a coastal port, where freight trains carrying goods to and from container ships join the railway line through the Copper Canyon. Boarding the passenger train next morning, Nick's first stop is the old Spanish fort town of El Fuerte, which claims to be the inspiration for that legendary hero of multiple Hollywood films, Zorro.

Nick Knowles is experiencing the wonders of the world, by train - and in this second episode he's in Norway. From the Viking capital of Trondheim, through tree-lined fjords and snow-capped mountain scenery, Nick travels north through pretty Mosjøen with its brightly painted wooden waterfront houses to the coastal city of Bodø. A statue of the famous Viking seafarer Lief Erikson overlooks the seafront at Trondheim where Nick starts his journey. Channelling his inner Viking, Nick boards a train bound north through Trondelag, making a brief diversion, like thousands of travellers a year in search of selfies, to the regional station at Hell. At Grong Nick stops for the night on the River Namsen, one of the most famous salmon fishing rivers in Norway. And when we say "on"… literally, he stays in a hotel-cum-static railway carriage parked on a disused railway bridge over the river. Nick hears how rich Brits, known as the "Salmon Lords" came here from the 1830s onwards – and taught the Norwegians how to fish for salmon. Their technique of harling is still used today. Further up the line, Nick reaches the picture postcard town of Mosjøen where he has negotiated a helicopter ride to Norway's most popular cabin for hikers. The Rabothytta overlooks a glacier and is four hours from the nearest road. His next stop is Mo-i-rana from where he visits the WWII camp at Dunderland, one of a series of Nazi internment camps for POWs who were forced to work on the railway, extending the line northwards to further Hitler's ambitions. With poor clothing and scarce food, many died in captivity. Nick meets a Sami reindeer herder who encourages him to dip fried reindeer in his coffee, kayaks upstream to see a stunningly stylish local hydroelectric plant servicing 1700 houses, and takes a ride across one of the strongest maelstrom's in the world: Saltstraumen. Nick: "It's like being in a giant fairground waltzer". Inside the Arctic Circle, he meets the Bodø Penguins, a group dedicated to daily sea swimming even when the sea temperature is near freezing. Nick's not a fan of cold water, but he's stoic and up for the challenge. But only after he's donned gloves, neoprene socks and a woolly hat… Brrr!

From Lao Cai on the Chinese border, via the misty mountains around Sa Pa, Nick Knowles heads south on a sleeper train to bustling Hanoi during his exploration of Vietnam. From there he travels on to the port at Haiphong, gateway to beautiful Ha Long Bay.

In this edition from Malaysia, Nick Knowles takes three train journeys: first a short hop to the Batu Caves with their rainbow-painted steps, then the jungle train from Mentakab to Gua Musang, taking in an elephant sanctuary, and finally the high-speed mainline from arty Ipoh to cosmopolitan Penang. Landing in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, Nick rides a commuter line north of the city to the Hindu shrine at the Batu Caves.

Nick Knowles's Alaskan journey begins at dawn in snowy Anchorage and takes him due north to the USA's coldest city, Fairbanks, taking in the mighty Matanuska Glacier on the way. Arriving with the first snowfall of winter, Nick sets off on his 12-hour trip as dawn is breaking, giving sun-tinged views of the snow-capped mountain lining the track. His first stop is in Wasilla where he travels by snowmobile to the Matanuska Glacier. There he tramps through the snow to find a tunnel inside the glacier. In Wasilla, he visits a train shed to help with the restoration of Engine 557, a WWII veteran steam locomotive. Back on his own train, the track ploughs through a wilderness area with no scheduled stops, only flag stops. This region is popular with ‘off-gridders' who live in the woods, relying on themselves for food and fuel. Nick meets Taylor and Anna, who moved here with their two children last year to find out what life is like in the snowy desert. The train moves on past the highest mountain in North America, Denali, once named Mount McKinley after the 25th US president, but after a 40-year campaign, finally restored to its indigenous Athabaskan name of Denali. To challenge himself, Nick joins the Denali Destroyer Dolls, a roller derby team, for training – and falls over. Many times. He joins an Athabascan mask-making class and hears how Alaska has the highest proportion of indigenous people of any state in the USA: one in five of the population are at least part Alaska Native. Arriving in snow-covered Fairbanks at twilight, Nick's train journey is over. On his last day he visits the largest year-round ice museum in the world at Chena Hot Springs. There he finds world champion ice carver Steve Brice, winner of 31 world titles, who shows him round. The museum consists of more than 1,000 tons of ice carved into fantastic structures: a wedding chapel, an igloo and a bar complete with bar stools and glasses, all made of ice. Nick joins Chena hotel owner Bernie at the ice bar for an appletini – on ice, of course. Bernie tells him, ‘The only thing cold in Alaska is the weather'. Nick can only agree.

Nick travels by rail through the extraordinary Andes Mountains to Machu Picchu, Peru.