The Orient Express: History's Most Glamorous Train

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[sirrliv]

Fun bonus fact: In 1988 the Orient Express even went to Japan!
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Fuji TV, the broadcaster partnered with Hitachi Ltd to bring the surviving Orient Express carriages on a grand tour from France, across Germany and Poland, through Russia via the Trans-Siberian Railway, and finally across China to Hong Kong, to ultimately take part in a 3-month tour throughout Japan. The project cost roughly 3 billion yen and saw the train make several tours throughout the Japanese islands, reaching as far north as Sapporo and as far south as Kumamoto. In order to fit the 3ft6in Japanese narrow gauge Hitachi built special bogies especially for the cars and station platforms were altered along each route to ensure the wider European carriages could fit, with a pair of JNR coaches being used to adapt between the Japanese automatic couplings and the French screw-link chain couplings. For the final leg of the tour between Ueno and Kyoto JNR restored an aging D51 Class steam locomotive No. 498 to operation especially for the occasion; from November 2018 to March 2019 D51 498, which survived into preservation, was specially repainted to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Orient Express '88.

[theloverlyladylo]

If time travel tourism ever becomes possible, a trip on the Orient Express is the top of my todo list

[pamelamays]

Magic Spoon in the morning, Shaker & Spoon at night.
Simon's day is covered!

[AlixFlemmer]

You know you’re doing YouTube right when you have enough channels to do different videos on the same topic

[ignitionfrn]

3:05 - Chapter 1 - Le Début
5:05 - Chapter 2 - La belle époque
8:50 - Chapter 3 - Après la guerre
11:20 - Chapter 4 - La fin
14:00 - Chapter 5 - L'héritage

[ilarious]

Excellent, one of my favourite trains!
I fell in love with it when I saw the Hercule Poirot movie on it as a kid and have been fascinated by it ever since.
Thanks YouTube papa!

[darthvader]

Another fun fact about Agatha Christie's novel: It was written that the train stopped in the mountains between Brod and Vinkovci in Croatia. In reality, those two towns are 60 km away and are located in the flattest area of Croatia. There are no hills in sight, let alone mountains.

[johnwolf]

VERY glad to see one like this from Mega-P.
I think the O.E. of today is a little more active, and yes they do use original carriages. The original inspiration came from a visit to the US and a look at the Pullman cars coming into use. The work and determination to overcome the obstacles to making all this work deserve a documentary of it's own.
BTW- have you ever heard of The Train Killer, the serial killer that targeted whole trains? He got an Orient Express, too.

[amrastheluckywoof]

There's a variant of the Oriënt Express that travelled through Belgium last year (and past my house as well). It's scheduled to return in April this year. As I live close to the Belgian Dutch border, I got the opportunity to walk around the train cars when they got a scheduled technical inspection. I even said hi to a colleague of mine who got to drive it.
It is one amazingly beautiful train.
And recently, I've been to the Belgian national train museum, where there are currently two actual cars of the Express on display. Their beauty is unmatched. It's a phenomenal experience to just walk through the cars.

[captwrecked]

Suggestion? There is a disused NORAD Underground facility in North Bay, Canada that has a great history and a cloudy future. Would love to see a video on it!

[zch]

The real orient Express is the friends we made along the way 🥰

[G]

Those were the days of real journalism, when journalists literally prevented wars with the power of truth.

[mrspaceman]

I actually rode on a train in Switzerland that included a couple cars from the Orient Express (or so they said). Very cool regardless!

[lawreecefluellen]

MegaProjects—always right on time like a train in the USSR. 😀

[timmellor]

There is one Orient Express still running (operated by Belmond, I think) from Venice to Paris via Simplon. It uses those beautiful blue coaches too. However, there is mooted a re-introduction of the original route slightly further north and arriving in Istanbul (over five days). Prices for the Venice-Paris one are eye-wateringly expensive, and the Istanbul train doubles that! I still want to experience the beauty of the trains and that service beyond any other (on board a train)

[coastie]

Love your channels Simon! Keep serving up that tasty knowledge!

[ceebee]

Would this be the right channel to detail the time the Indiana Bell building was moved 90° over the course of a month without disrupting the use of the building? I couldn't find that you've already told us about this - please do! I'm so curious about how it was done.

[swampfox]

I was debating on watching this since I just watched your geographic video on this train. But I am glad I watched it. Much different video.

[oqnppuo]

Bruh, the movie "Murder on the Orient Express" perfectly express the feeling of mystery perfectly

[tonyj]

Excellent Simon! I learned a lot from this one. Now to make it big so I can take the new Oriental Express! The kids' college can wait!