Luxury and Adventure: The Orient Express
132 years ago today, on October 4th, 1883, The Orient Express made its first official journey; its route taking passengers from Paris to Istanbul (then still known as Constantinople).
The luxury train was a dream realized for creator George Nagelmackers. An 1865 trip to America introduced Nagelmackers to the posh Pullman sleeping cars, and he became determined to build a network of similar trains in Europe, including a fantasy line spanning the continent. He founded the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits in 1874, which focused on not only its international train lines, but also a chain of luxury hotels throughout the major cities of Europe and Western Asia.
The Orient Express was the crown jewel of Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. It came into being at at time when Orientalism-the romanticized , Westernized view of Asian culture-was all the rage in Europe. The trip took just over 80 hours, and passengers spent that time surrounded by the richest woods, leathers, silks available. It was so popular that the company designed four additional variations of the Orient Express trip; with newer trains starting in London, and also running through places like Zurich and Venice, and one line ending in Athens rather than Budapest. The train became frequented by kings, czars, and spies; inspiring its use in many great works of fiction.
Murder On the Orient Express by Agatha Christie is, of course, the most famous use of the "King of Trains" in a story; keeping it a household name to this day. Along with Poirot, the Orient Express was also ridden by James Bond in From Russia With Love and by Dracula's pursuers in Bram Stoker's original 1897 masterpiece. More recently, an episode of Doctor Who entitled "Mummy on the Orient Express" predicted the continuation of the train line far into the future and deep in the universe.
The Orient Express played an important role in real events, too. The World Wars both interrupted train service for the public, but cars from the trains, and the tracks, were to put to use by many different armies. At the end of World War I, a Wagons-Lits train car from the Orient Express was being used as a mobile conference room by an Allied commander. German officers were brought to the car on November 11, 1918 to sign surrender documents. The car was then put on display in Paris, where it remained until the Nazi invasion in 1940. Hitler had the car brought back to the spot of the 1918 German surrender, to dictate the terms of surrender for the French. In 1945, when the Third Reich was falling, Hitler ordered the car to be blown up.