From Tehran to Tibet and Sudan to Switzerland, let the train take the strain.

There is a well-known London therapist who likes to tell his clients they live life too fast. The perfect antidote to an overdose of modernity would be a train trip. Not the salaryman’s soulless commute from A to B, and back again. The cure for being constantly in touch is traversing territory that’s inaccessible by other means, either because one misses too much by plane, or the road trip won’t survive without a fight. There’s something enduringly compelling about a private cabin for the night – Ms Marilyn Monroe, Count Leo Tolstoy and James Bond have set many declarations of love on rolling stock – as well as meetings with strangers sharing the same tracks. Whether en route to St Moritz, or leaving Tehran in the middle of the night, these seven train journeys are the world’s most iconic for those with a deep sense of wanderlust.

It takes 48 hours to journey from Beijing to Lhasa on a new train that climbs up to 4,300m to traverse the permafrost of the Tibetan Plateau. Mr Justin Wateridge, an adventure travel specialist who biked the Mekong’s length in 1999 until he was thrown out of Tibet for “paperwork inconsistencies”, tempers the appeal of riding the world’s highest railway: “The smart money takes the flight to Golmud, then trains the rest,” he concedes. “The reduced route – the last 1,100km of the journey into Lhasa – is frankly long enough.” Some will drink their way through the hours in the bar carriage; others will gulp oxygen, provided on board for those for whom the altitude proves too much. steppestravel.com

The Golden Eagle has a whiff of old-school train travel – the chink of crystal in the bar, cabin attendants on call, velvet banquettes in the dining car – but the route takes in perhaps one of the most relevant political stories of our time. The train rolls from Iran into Budapest (or the other way round), and includes Tehran, and the deliciously named Museum of the Mummified Salt Men. Istanbul is also on the itinerary, where you can slip in for a quick night in the latest Soho House, opening in March. Maybe this is the moment to hop off the line, before heading into Romania’s Carpathian Mountains and hitting the Great Hungarian Plain… goldeneagleluxurytrains.com

In India, there are two ways to travel in style: astride a Bullet motorbike, or aboard the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, built by the British in 1908, and still travelling from Mettupalayam in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to the pretty town of Ooty on the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats. It’s a four-hour, 2,000m climb to the former British hill station, but it’s worth it, if just to chalk some cues in Ooty in the very room where snooker was invented. The original billiards table remains – sent by boat from London’s Soho Square – in a gentleman’s club that’s still thriving after all these years. Entry to The Ootacamund Club is by request, with the Gentleman’s Bar the only public room in which the strict dress code is relaxed: gentlemen are permitted in shirtsleeves after 8pm. indianrail.gov.in

The Ghan isn’t quite the Orient Express in terms of luxury, but it sure beats crossing Australia by camel, in the footsteps of Ms Robyn Davidson’s 2,700km journey. The movie Tracks depicts her epic 1977 quest from centre to west, from the Northern Territory town of Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean. The Ghan – a shortened name for The Afghan Express, referring to the Afghan camel drivers who arrived in Australia in the late 19th century – travels from north to south, coast to coast from Darwin to Adelaide. The three-night journey covers 2,979km, with a pit stop at the world’s opal mining capital, Coober Pedy, where more than half the residents live underground – presenting the perfect moment to burrow down and escape the chitchat of The Ghan’s white-clothed dining car. greatsouthernrail.com.au

In 1896, construction started on a military railroad linking Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian border, with Khartoum in Sudan – an initiative from Major Horatio Kitchener to supply the Anglo-Egyptian army fighting the Mahdist War. It was a famously bumpy line: carriages toppled; men were reprimanded; the British upper lip didn’t slacken and fail. Now upgraded as part of the present-day Sudan Railway, the route makes for a most unusual journey across the Bayuda Desert, according to Mr William Jones, the Africa specialist who takes Mr Ralph Lauren on safari, among other arbiters of style. “A hardy desert train experience with thieves running across the roofs,” says Mr Jones. “A finer journey isn’t to be had.” journeysbydesign.com

Travelling by road from Quito, the capital of Ecuador, to Guayaquil, the gun-running city on the country’s Pacific coast, encompasses one of South America’s great switchbacks often blown out by landslides. The jury is out on whether the Devil’s Nose can beat that trip. The train utilises an original 19th-century line, recently reopened with seven pimped-up, bright red carriages. The result is perhaps a little touristic – the danger has gone now locals can no longer ride on the roof – but still, the Andean landscape remains a big lure, connecting the Valley of the Volcanoes with the infamous Nariz del Diablo on one of the steepest stretches of railway anywhere to be found. trenecuador.com

There is no finer train journey for which to dress than the Glacier Express, donning one’s Gunter Sachs slacks and furs for this classic journey defining the essence of Alpine chic. The seven-hour ride between the resorts of Davos or St Moritz and Zermatt in Switzerland operates year-round, but it’s in winter that this train is at its best, winding through snow, 91 tunnels and traversing some 291 bridges between chalets where the wood is neatly stacked and the horse manure arranged in tidy plaits. As to the highlight, it’s at the end of the journey when one rolls up towards the Matterhorn to feast on millefeuille at that most perfect of mountain restaurants, Zum See, among snow-dusted pines. glacierexpress.ch