Chris Tarrant embarks on a journey across Ukraine, where he travels on the most bizarre rail vehicle he has ever encountered. In Kiev, he learns about the forced famine of the 1930s, meets a soldier from the ongoing civil war and visits the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history at Chernobyl.

Chris Tarrant embarks on a thousand-mile journey across Spain's complex rail system, discovering how the railways were involved in tension over Gibraltar, the Spanish Civil War and WWII. But Spain has quietly become a world leader in train technology.

Chris Tarrant boards some of the highest and steepest trains that cross the Alps, including one that tackles the 965m high Semmering Pass, the Arlberg Line that traverses an avalanche zone, and two incredibly steep cog railways.