“ALL I can say is that the work has been done well in every way.”

These were the few words with which William Van Horne, the general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway, marked the line’s completion on November 7, 1885.

They could also be applied to a journey on the Rocky Mountaineer, a luxury tourist train which now plies the CP’s rails across western Canada.

The train slows to walking pace as it passes the place where Van Horne uttered that sentence, the wayside halt of Craigellachie, in British Columbia’s Eagle Pass, to give passengers a view of the stone cairn which marks the spot where an iron spike was hammered home to complete the ribbon of rails that forged the Canadian nation.

The Rocky Mountaineer is something quite different from the commuter and express trains we are used to in Europe.

This is travel for travel’s sake, through some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet, an ever-changing canvas of landscapes, from lush river valleys east of Vancouver to semi-desert uplands and on to the jagged peaks of the mountain range which gives the train its name, before the journey ends at Calgary, on the edge of the pancake-flat prairies.

The service on board is top-notch too. I was travelling GoldLeaf – first – class, in a double-deck dome observation car. Meals cooked on board are served in the lower level dining area.

Attendants Chad and Christina were a mine of information about the train, the route and the scenery and communities it passes through – as well as helping to spot the local wildlife, although the nearest I got to seeing a bear was a black furry backside disappearing into the trees just ahead, after its owner was startled by the train.

We did notch up sightings of a moose (what is called an elk in Europe), what the Canadians call an elk (big deer), some bighorn sheep and a coyote.

The pace of the two-day journey is leisurely, both to allow time to enjoy the views, but also because the tracks are shared with the CP and Canadian National Railway’s mind-bogglingly long and heavy freight trains – stretching for up to a mile, with two, three, four or more locomotives hauling thousands of tonnes of cargo.

After travelling on the Rocky Mountaineer’s first run, in 1990, former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark called the journey “the most spectacular train trip in the world” – a phrase the company has trademarked.

To describe the journey in detail would make this article as long as one of those freight trains, so I will confine myself to some edited highlights travelling from west to east – Vancouver to Calgary.

On the first day, the train picks its way through the Fraser Canyon, clinging to a narrow ridge blasted into the rock, past Hell’s Gate, where the Fraser River channel narrows to just 110ft and up to 200 million gallons of water per minute surge past.

Further east, in the Thompson River gorge, is Avalanche Alley, where the CN track on the opposite side of the canyon huddles under a series of tunnels and shelters to evade rocks falling from the cliffs high above.

Much of the rest of the first day’s journey to the overnight stop at Kamloops passes through a semi-desert area, where as few as 10in of rain fall each year and you feel like you are passing through the setting for a Western movie, with a gang of masked gunmen lying in wait around the next curve.

Overnight accommodation in Kamloops is included in the price of the trip, with GoldLeaf passengers getting a complimentary dinner as well. There is also the chance to enjoy a show called Rhythm on the Rails.

Kamloops (the meeting of the waters in the local native language) is the place where the Rocky Mountaineer’s route divides, with trains on the Yellowhead Route heading north to Jasper on the second day.

I was travelling east on the Kicking Horse route, through the pass of the same name.

The second day opens with the attractive Shuswap Lake area, where the train skirts the lakeshore, but this is just the hors d’oeuvre for the passage through Craigellachie and the climb into the Selkirk Mountains to Stoney Creek Bridge, where an elegant steel arch carries the rails 325ft above the creek bed.

The Kicking Horse Pass then brings the train into Field, the start of the climb into the Rockies, gaining height through the Spiral Tunnels, where the train loops around inside two mountains to gain height.

They were built in the 1900s to replace the Big Hill, which had a fearsome gradient of 1 in 22.7 (4.5 per cent) and three escape tracks in case of runaway trains.

At Stephen, the route crosses the Continental Divide, at the highest point on the journey, 5,203ft above sea level.

Joining the Bow River, the train runs through the peaks of the Rockies, including the dramatic turreted outcrop of Castle Mountain, before rolling to a stop at what the CP originally called Siding 29, now better known to the world as Banff.

Many passengers leave or join the train here, combining the train journey with exploring the Rockies or a taste of the high life in this mountain resort, dominated by the chateau-style Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, which was built by the railway in 1888.

The final few miles into Calgary, through the undulating foothills east of the Rockies, give a chance to catch one’s breath after two days of non-stop excitement – just as well if you arrive in early July, when the city’s famous Stampede rodeo is in full swing.

  • THE Rocky Mountaineer’s Kicking Horse and Yellowhead route trains operate from mid-April until mid-October. There are two classes of travel, GoldLeaf, riding in a double-deck dome car, and RedLeaf, where you travel in modernised 1950s coaches built for the Canadian National Railway’s Super Continental service across Canada. There are three departures a week in both directions for most of the season. The company also offers packages including other Canadian railway routes and tours or cruises before or after the rail journey. For more information, see the Rocky Mountaineer website or call 00 800 0606 7372.