Traversing Canada, this train has crossed red sand on the East Coast, passed beneath waterfalls in the Rockies and been blown off its tracks in an Ontario lightning storm. It’s also two inches tall. The model toy is the subject of Jeff Friesen’s venture to photograph the Canadian landscape up close. Friesen drove across the country with the train in a cloth bag, spending hours setting up the tracks at iconic locales. “There’s some sort of kid-like wonder in it,” he says. For many shots, he lay on the ground—“there were some contortions”—and he once had to rescue six of the cars after they were swept into the Atlantic Ocean. The project began in 2013, but Friesen, based in Victoria, still pulls out the train when he travels. “It’ll never really end,” he says.

Gallery Photo Essay: Jeff Friesen 1 / 11 Jeff Friesen La Mauricie National Park, Que.: Seeking to avoid bright midday sun, the artist went into a valley and found a natural bridge in the form of a fallen tree