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King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth were so pleased with the Hudson locomotive on the train that carried them across Canada on their 1939 royal tour that they granted the title Royal to a group of Hudson locomotives. One of these, Locomotive 2860, traveled proudly through British Columbia for 16 years before it was forced off the tracks by diesel engines. Rescued from the Winnipeg scrap yards by the government of British Columbia, 2860 was refurbished in 1974 and is now the only steam engine in regular mainline service in North America. Tom Savio, a former stationmaster and now a rail-travel consultant, says the black-and-silver locomotive, which "blends Canadian robustness and English Art Deco streamlining," is "one of the most aesthetically pleasing ever built." During the spring and summer months, 2860 pulls a string of vintage passenger cars along tracks that hug the top of a cliff 100 ft. above Howe Sound, north of Vancouver. The 80-mile round trip, much of it poised over the water below, offers views of pretty islands, the Strait of Georgia, lush forests, a span of glaciers, coastal mountains that sweep into the sea and waterfalls so close you can almost touch them. The trip, says Savio, is "on the short list of the most beautiful in North America." Be sure to book the parlor class (for about $57), where you will eat well in a dining room, relax in a club car and gaze out picture windows. From May through September, Wednesday through Sunday, the train leaves North Vancouver at 10 a.m. and returns at 4 p.m., with a two-hour stopover in Squamish, where 60 vintage railway cars and locomotives are on view in the West Coast Railway Heritage Park. If you like, you can travel one way of the journey through Howe Sound on the M.V. Britannia www.bcrail.com./bcrpass 800-663-8238). --V.M.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST ON THE WATER--ALMOST
This sleek new European-built train may be the best--and cheapest--way to see the Pacific Northwest. Subsidized by the states of Oregon and Washington, the nine-hour trip costs only $44 for coach, and you can buy segments (Portland to Seattle costs $21). With current schedules, you need to stay overnight in Seattle, but that means you can sight-see and sample local salmon washed down by a tangy microbrew. You can bring your bike along, at least as far as the Canadian border, stowing it on one of the Cascades' bicycle racks ($5 extra; reserve ahead), so you can tool around cycle-friendly Portland or Seattle.