From riding the rails atop a luggage rack through the mountains of Ecuador to enjoying a gourmet meal aboard the Lalique-laden Orient Express, this potpourri of train travel is bound to satisfy train buffs. The 57-minute National Geographic video opens with a segment on riding and working on old steam engines.There's a visit to a Montecito, California, property where grownups sit in miniature steam-engine cars and ride a mile-long track. Later, narrator James Whitmore takes viewers to Iowa to a celebration honoring hobos, especially the Hobo King, who calls himself "Steamboat." Then it's on to the notorious Donner Pass, where locomotives face the same trying weather conditions that vanquished most of the Donner party so long ago. In between stories, there's lots of black-and-white photographs and footage of early steam engines, the building of the railroad, and early travel. Viewers are treated to some of the more remarkable views in U.S. train travel as the engines make their way up steep inclines of the Rockies, pass unusual rock formations in the Southwest, or negotiate perilous stretches in crime-ridden urban areas. --Kimberly Heinrichs