Saw this by chance on MSN's headlines. Below is a direct link to the article.

http://local.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-do ... &GT1=24000

They name:
-Alaska Railroad
-Amtrak's Coast Starlight
-Cass Scenic Railroad State Park
-Copper Canyon trains
-Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
-The Rocky Mountaineer
-Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad
-VIA Rail across Canada

The selection appears to have been based largely on scenery. I'm not too familiar with the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad but it does not seem to be of the same caliber of scenery as the others on the list.

Although generally well written, under the D&S section it has a disturbing passage:

"Seems every train museum has an "excursion" experience, a short route that provides the guests the opportunity to ride on Thomas the Tank Engine, visit Santa Claus or go looking for Easter eggs, a thinly veiled income producer that allows the train-obsessed to leave their model-train layouts, dress in pinstripe overalls and tinker with a real steam locomotive and other big boy toys."

I find it a little amusing that, in an error all too typical of mass travel media, they illustrate the Amtrak Coast Starlight item with a photo of the iconic photo location of the Empire Builder route: the Middle Fork Flathead River bridge in Nimrod, Montana.

If I rode VIA Rail across Canada and then Rocky Mountaineer, would I not be riding on the same rails?

No. I believe that VIA Rail uses the ex-CN route that goes through Edmonton, whereas the Rocky Mountaineer uses the ex-CP route that goes through Kicking Horse Pass, Lake Louise, and Banff.