Luxury Travel

It was the Belgian entrepreneur, Georges Nagelmackers, who, inspired by seeing the new Pullman coaches in America, developed Europe’s first and most famous luxury train.

The very first journey of the Orient Express set off from Paris on 4th October 1883. Nagelmackers was always something of a showman. The invited passengers arrived at the station to find an old six-wheeler carriage standing at the platform, when they had been led to expect something quite different. It was Nagelmackers’ joke. Soon one of France’s finest locomotives, a 2-4-0 Class 500, with its two pairs of 1.5-metre driving wheels, chuffed into the station pulling the real Orient Express.

The train consisted of two fourgons, or baggage cars - one for mail and the other to hold passengers’ luggage and the all-important reserve stocks of fine wines. Then came the two sleeping-car saloons and the dining car.

The saloons were built with two 4-wheeled bogies and the interior was as luxurious as a first-class hotel. The chairs were upholstered in embossed leather, panelling was in teak and mahogany inlaid with elaborate marquetry and gilt, and gas chandeliers lit the whole baroque interior of the dining car.

As the train left the Gare d’Est, the guests were ushered in for what was to be the first of many gourmet meals, which passed the test of even the most exacting French critics. At 50 miles per hour, the tables were as steady as if the diners had been enjoying a meal in a boulevard restaurant.