Great American Railroad Journeys is a BBC travel documentary series presented by Michael Portillo and aired on BBC Two. Using an 1879 copy of Appleton's Guidebook to the railroads of the United States and Canada, Portillo travels across the United States primarily by train, though at times uses other forms of transportation where necessary. His journeys see him making stops to learn how important historical sites, influential historical events, famous Americans, and the railroads of the 19th century, influenced the country's growth into a major superpower.
When broadcast, each series originally consisted of 30-minute episodes, broadcast during consecutive weekday evenings. They were later repeated in a revised schedule (described as "Reversions") which combined and re-edited two episodes of the original broadcast to create a series of 1-hour episodes; as Series 1 consisted of fifteen 30-minute episodes, the "Brooklyn to Montauk" episode was revised as an extended version that included additional content not seen in the original broadcast schedule. The DVD of Series 1 consists only of the original fifteen episodes. To date, two series of the programme have been broadcast since its debut on 1 February 2016.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Episodes
Series 1 (2016)
In his first series, Portillo took two railroad journeys in the north-east of the United States, spanning a total of 15 episodes. His first journey took him across the US State of New York, travelling around New York City and Long Island before heading to Niagara Falls via New York's state capital of Albany and Buffalo. His second journey took him across the Mid-Atlantic States of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, travelling from Philadelphia to Jamestown, via Washington, D.C..
New York City to Niagara Falls
Philadelphia to Jamestown
Series 2 (2017)
In his second series, Portillo took two railroad journeys around the midwestern and central regions of the United States, spanning a total of 20 episodes. His first recreated the experience that would have been felt by those travelling across the 19th century American Frontier, beginning in St. Louis, Missouri and travelling towards Kansas City, Dodge City, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, and finishing at the Grand Canyon. His second focused on discovering how the modern Midwest was made, beginning in the Twin Cities and following the Mississippi River, before heading towards Chicago, and then turning back southwards towards Minneapolis, eventually rejoining the Mississippi at the finishing point at Memphis.
St. Louis, Missouri to the Grand Canyon
The Twin Cities to Memphis
Great American Cookie College Station Video
Books
A book to accompany the series, written by Michael Portillo and published by Simon & Schuster UK, will be released in February 2017.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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