Visit a busy train station in Europe and you"ll be caught in a swirl of activity. Travelers scurry, suitcases in hand. Car doors slam. Locomotive horns sound, and trains roll off toward the four corners of the continent - to places with such magic names as Paris and Berlin, Zurich and Venice, Innsbruck and Amsterdam. The destinations seem limitless, and there"s no better way to get to them than by passenger train. Karl Zimmermann, whose train travels have taken him across North and South America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and into Asia, is the perfect companion for a trip through the colorful history of passenger trains - and also along those tracks where passenger rail still thrives. Young readers will learn how passenger trains developed from the Baltimore & Ohio"s horse-drawn, stagecoachlike cars to France"s trend-setting TGVs, the world"s fastest trains. They"ll discover the magic of sitting in a dome car, sleeping in a Pullman, dining on rails, and riding such grand trains as the Canadian, among the world"s finest. Featuring stunning photographs of passenger trains from around the globe and filled with fascinating facts, this lively book captures the thrill of traveling by rail.