The iron horses that built civilization—and you're still late for work.
Season 1 • Episode 6
LatestChina is the champion of high-speed rail and 75 million people now live within an hour's commute of Shanghai - more than the entire population of the UK.
This series looks at the iconic trains that have done the most to change history. Each train is an engineering marvel, each one a leap forward in the history of trains and railways. But more than this, these are the trains that made the modern world. These are the trains that unify nations and open up continents, that miraculously shrink distance and create a global economy, changing how we trade, what we buy and make and sell. They change how we live and even how we think, speeding up our lives and expanding our horizons. These are the machines that made us modern. Each episode features one iconic train and describes its impact on railway history and on history in general, combining archive and expert testimony with actuality and hands-on engineering demonstrations.
Production
Gorgeous restored archive footage and crisp modern engineering demos
Editing
Tight episodes that never overstay their welcome
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Orient Express episode captures how rail travel created the first 'international elite'—basically inventing modern tourism and spy fiction simultaneously.
Each train's selection reveals British documentary bias: three UK/European icons, one American, one Japanese—where's India's massive network or South Africa's apartheid-defying lines?
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