Field British Columbia - They called it "The Big Hill", 4.1 miles of railroad so steep that every mile of track had an inclined spur installed to catch runaway trains.
 
They were staffed 24 hours a day.
 
When a train approached, the engineer would have to go through a series of whistles so complicated that they would assure the spur operator the train was under control.
 
Only then would he flip the switch that allowed the train to continue.
 
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) had promised a route through the Rockies, at least 100 miles north of the border, but the mountains at Kicking Horse Pass were so steep that it was impossible to build a track there that met government standards for railway grade.
 
But as CP began work on a tunnel through one of the mountains, the Big Hill line was used a temporary fix, designed to "break the government prescribed limit in spectacular fashion", as Anthony Lambert writes in his new book "Lost Railway Journeys from Around the World".
 
Like the other 32 journeys featured in the book, the Big Hill line is long gone.
 
But the tales and photographs of these defunct routes evoke a time when trains still represented the cutting edge of travel technology.
 
Across the world, Lambert resurrects a bygone world of steam engines, narrow-gauge tracks, and custom monorails that carried cows 10 miles to the seaside.
 
Sarah Laskow.