Nagelmackers, however, readily embraced the name. It did not take long for the newspapers to dub the new long-distance line the “Orient Express.” Even as Istanbul was still in Europe. The Train That Connected Europe and Asia A vintage postcard showing the Orient Express, the locomotive and the Pullman cars, at the turn of the century. So in 1883, after initial troubles, including the Franco-Prussian war, financial difficulties and negotiations with the various national companies, Nagelmackers’s Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (“wagons-lits” being French for “sleeper cars”) established a route from Paris to the Istanbul (or Constantinople as it was known then). The Orient Express train was a brainchild of the Belgian engineer Georges Nagelmackers, who in 1865 envisioned “a train that would span a continent, running on a continuous ribbon of metal for more than 1,500 miles.” Nagelmackers got the idea during his trip to America, where he witnessed many innovations in the passenger railways, including George Pullman’s unprecedented, luxurious “sleeper cars.”Ī son of a banker, Nagelmackers had the means and will to make his plans a reality.
The Vision of the Orient Express Picture of Georges Nagelmackers from 1898 (left) Orient Express’ promotional poster from 1888-1889 (right)
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