"Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take" is a collection of stories
about favorite train journeys by an inveterate railway enthusiast and
train traveler. A half century career as an engineer, Naval officer, and
university administrator took Bill Middleton to almost every part of
the globe, and everywhere he took with him an abiding interest in
railways, and a notebook and camera to record his experiences. His North
American journeys have included experiences as diverse as the long
journey north through Manitoba to polar bear country on Hudson Bay, a
trip to Minnesota's Mesabi Range to haul a boatload of iron ore to Lake
Superior behind a giant Yellowstone articulated steam locomotive, and
the trip between Costa Rica's Atlantic and Pacific coasts by narrow
gauge railway. His European travels have ranged from a Pullman seat on
the crack London-Paris Golden Arrow to the slow trip across Thrace on
one of the last runs of the celebrated Simplon-Orient Express. In Asia
he traveled through the Toros Mountains of Turkey on the famous
Istanbul-Baghdad Toros Express, experienced modern high-speed
railroading in the cab of Japan's Bullet Train, and rode to Asia's
highest mountain east of the Himalayas on the little trains of Taiwan's
Ali Shan Forestry Railway.
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