Disused Stations: Dover Marine/Dover Western Docks Station Date of visit: January 1995 & March 1996 Notes: Continuous traffic growth in the later years of the nineteenth century underlined the need for improving the Admiralty Pier which was open to the elements. The plans for Admiralty Pier were amended in 1906 to allow the building of a new station for the South Eastern & Chatham Railway on reclaimed land on the north side of the pier. This would replace the existing station on the Pier which was always susceptible to closure during heavy seas. Dover Harbour, which is generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest feats of port construction at that time, was completed in 1909. The walls and piers were built of large blocks weighing from 30 to 40 tons. These blocks were made of concrete, with a granite facing to those that were to be placed on the outside surfaces of the walls above water level. The completed harbour was opened on 14 October 1909 by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, the future King George V.

In 1909 work started on the new station to create an artificial platform for the new terminus alongside the north end of the Admiralty Pier. Creating sufficient land for the new terminus involved the construction of a sea wall made out of concrete blocks to the east of the Admiralty Pier. Large quantities of chalk were then dumped into the water between the pier and the new wall with the pier becoming the western side of the new station site. 1,200 ferroconcrete piles were manufactured on site; up to 75ft in length and of 17in diameter. These were driven down through the chalk into the original seabed; this process avoided having to wait for the dumped chalk to settle. The heads of the piles were connected by reinforced concrete slabs. Once the reclamation of the 12-acre site had been completed construction of the terminus started in 1913. It comprised a steel and glass cathedral roof (trainshed) 800ft in length and 170ft wide. Beneath the trainshed there were two 60ft-wide concrete island platforms, each 693ft in length.

The station was largely completed in 1914 but with the start of WW1 the continental ferry service ceased to operate as a wartime economy measure. Dover Town station closed on 14 October 1914 with all services being diverted to Dover Harbour and Dover Priory. Admiralty Pier and the new terminus were taken over for military use with the new station opening as Dover Admiralty Pier, for military traffic only, on 2 January 1915 when it became the principal ambulance railway station. During the early years of the war the station was still in an unfinished state. From January 1915 onwards the port of Dover was the main evacuation port for wounded soldiers. Between January 1915 and February 1919 it is estimated that 1,260,000 wounded and ailing soldiers passed through the port and were dispatched to all parts of England, Wales and Scotland from the station. From July 1917 overseas leave and draft men were conveyed to the Western Front via the port of Dover. These additional troop movements continued unabated until February 1919 when the facilities in Dover were finally turned over to the civilian authorities.

Repatriated British prisoners of war started to arrive at Dover on 17 November 1918. By February 1919 180 boats conveying 55,398 released former POWs were received by 130 trains. In January 1919 the large Customs Examination Shed in the station was utilised for the sorting out of demobilised men, who began to arrive at Dover. The number passing through Dover amounted to 720,664 servicemen. When the armistice came in November 1918, the SE&CR had a fine record of war service to its credit, and Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig wrote the following letter of commendation to Cosmo Bonsor, the Chairman of the SE&CR Managing Committee: ‘The Army in France owes much to all connected with the control of our railway companies in the United Kingdom, and indeed in the Empire. They have at all times shown great willingness to help us in every possible way in their power.

Track has been torn up to give us rails, engines, trucks, men, capable engineers, operations staff all have been sent abroad to us, regardless of their own special needs and demands of the people at home, and without a moment’s hesitation. But we have been more closely associated with the South Eastern & Chatham Railway than any other. The bulk of our ammunition and stores required for the maintenance of our armies, as well as several millions of men as reinforcements and on leave, have passed over their system. Their sphere of duty, too, has been nearest to the shores of France and Belgium, and consequently more open to hostile attacks by air and fear of invasion by sea. Undisturbed by any alarms the traffic for the Armies in France has never ceased to flow. This reflects the greatest credit on all concerned with the company’. Much of the north end of Admiralty Pier was incorporated into an extensive network of trackwork and sidings around the new station; these were required to handle the large quantity of freight traffic passing through Dover during the war. Access to the station and sidings was controlled by a large 120-lever SE&CR-designed signal box on the down side approach to the station.

The two platforms were spanned by a lattice footbridge at the north end of the trainshed. Although the trainshed was virtually complete, construction of the stone façade at the north end had not been started. Once completed this comprised an ashlar frontage with rusticated dressings. The central section had a large central round-headed opening for two tracks with rusticated surround and enriched keystone with the inscription above 'S E and C R'. There were flanking full-height narrow rusticated arches within which were high circular windows above pedestrian entrances. The rusticated surrounds rose to an interrupted cornice with blank cartouches in the parapet. The flanking lower bays had rusticated round-headed arches and end quoins each for a single track. The sides and rear of the building were of red brick with some ashlar dressings. The south-east elevation had pilasters at regular intervals and some black brick dressings. Pedestrian access was through a detached entrance block opposite the ‘Lord Warden’ hotel. This comprised a tall three-bay single-storey building with doorways flanking a central window. The north-west side, facing the hotel, had patterned stonework with quarry faced quoins.

The three openings had stone arching (voussoirs). There was a decorative cornice with a slate French pavilion roof and a circular window. The return bays had round-headed windows flanked by rusticated engaged Tuscan columns and the remainder was of brick with stone dressings. A wide stairway led up to a 455ft-long enclosed glazed footbridge which was suspended above the double track of the former Admiralty Pier. The footbridge was divided down the middle with cast iron railings to separate people going on to the pier, who used the west side, while passengers for the station used the east side. The sides of the walkway were constructed of steel with elliptical roof trusses and had continuous windows. On each platform there were three large blocks of brick buildings, each 100ft in length and 25ft in width. These buildings were allocated to a variety of purposes, including waiting rooms, tea rooms, dining and refreshment facilities, post and parcel shed railway staff rooms etc. At the end of each platform nearest to the Admiralty Pier provision was made for a Post Office, and at the end of the other platform there was a Customs Examination and Clearance Shed.

After WW1 the SE&CR erected a war memorial on the platform in tribute to the 5,222 staff and employees of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway who served in HM forces during the war; of those who served, 556 men lost their lives. A 4-road carriage shed, open at both ends, was built on the west side of the trainshed. It was 700ft long by 63ft wide and intended for cleaning carriages and the minor servicing of locomotives. It was a notoriously unpleasant place to work, especially in south-west gales at high tide. On such occasions the waves would come over the pier parapet, cross the open tracks and pour down through the various holes in the roof. In later years the salt water would often cause an electrical short circuit on the insulator pots under the conductor rails which then sometimes exploded! The shed could be entered through a doorway in the trainshed wall. With the restoration of continental services after the war the new station was renamed Dover Marine in 1918 and opened for passenger traffic with the first boat train arriving on 18 January 1919.

In 1926 Admiralty Harbour was recognized as having limited military use and it was decided to hand it, including the Admiralty Pier, to the Dover Harbour Board for administration as a commercial undertaking. The only facilities for locomotives were a turntable and water tank sited behind the signal box. On 14 November 1924 the 'Continental Express' boat train was introduced and consisted of the six first class Pullman cars, a baggage and brake van. It left London Victoria at 10.50 am, the return 'Continental Express' train leaving Dover for London at 5.30 pm. The Southern Railway introduced the ‘Golden Arrow’ service on 15 May 1929. As noted above, they had already introduced the ‘Continental Express’ boat train on 14 November 1924 which was designed to give extra comfort. That train consisted of six first class Pullman cars, a baggage and a brake van and left London Victoria at 10.50 am with the return Continental Express train leaving Dover for London at 5.30 pm.

The French, in September 1926, followed Southern’s lead and launched an all-Pullman train between Paris and Calais, giving it the title of ‘Flèche d’Or’ (Golden Arrow). To take passengers across the Channel, Southern had ordered a vessel to be known as ‘Canterbury’ from William Denny & Brothers of Dumbarton. In the meantime, the company decided to upgrade the ‘Continental Express’ with a new train given the anglicised name of the ‘Golden Arrow’. The ‘Golden Arrow’ consisted of 10 Pullman cars, hauled by a 4-6-0 Lord Nelson class or King Arthur class engine sporting a Union Flag and Tricolour. At the time the Lord Nelson class was introduced, in 1926, they were the most powerful engines in Great Britain. The carriages were individually named, resplendent in chocolate and cream and aimed exclusively at first class Pullman passengers. On board was the ‘Trianon’ cocktail bar, a converted twelve-wheeled Pullman, modelled on a high-class club for the rich. The train also boasted the first public address system and passengers were addressed in both English and French.

The ‘Canterbury’ was launched on 13 December 1928 at Dumbarton and arrived in Dover on 30 April 1929, commencing service on 15 May, the same day as the ‘Golden Arrow’. The journey between London and Paris was advertised to take 6½ hours and each day the ‘Golden Arrow’ was scheduled to depart London Victoria at 11.00 am and reach Dover Marine station at 12.38 pm. As the line is fairly level with a very long straight section, speeds of 60 mph were not unknown. Having crossed the Channel in the ‘Canterbury’ and on reaching Calais the passengers were transferred to the awaiting ‘Flèche d’Or’, a four-cylinder Nord Pacific of the French Northern railway, arriving in Paris at 5.35pm UK time. The single fare was £6.10s. When the original cross-Channel sleeper service was introduced in 1869 passengers were required to catch the train in London, alight in Dover at the Admiralty Pier, embark on the night sleeper ferry, disembark at the Continental port and then catch a train to Paris or Brussels.

To run a service where a passenger could stay in the same compartment between London and a Continental capital without alighting was problematic owing to Dover’s tides. The maximum difference between high and low tides at Dover is some 23ft; however, by the 1920s advances in technology appeared to make such a service possible. Southern Railway, in the UK and the Société de Navigation Angleterre-Lorraine-Alsace in Belgium agreed to build a train ferry dock in Dover, outside the Tidal Basin, between South Pier and Admiralty Pier a short distance to the north-east of Dover Marine station. The specifications, drawn up by George Elson, Chief Engineer of Southern Railway, were a concrete dock 414ft long and 72ft wide, with a minimum depth of water of 17ft to a maximum of 36ft. Construction work started in August 1933 and two railway lines were laid to connect the dock to the main line into Dover Marine. The Southern Railway commissioned three purpose built ferries from Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Each ship was designed to take 12 sleeping cars, 500 passengers during the day, or approximately 40 goods wagons. There was also a small floor above the train deck to accommodate approximately 20 cars. On 28 September 1936 the first trains were shunted aboard the SS ‘Hampton Ferry’ which was decorated with flags and bunting for the opening of the terminal with many distinguished guests making the return crossing to Calais. The night service between London and Paris was officially inaugurated by the French Ambassador on 5 October 1936. The train left Victoria Station at 11.00 pm and arrived in Paris at 8.55 am the following day. The counterpart left Paris for London and there was a daily goods service via the ferry. A new daily service was launched during the night of 5 October 1936. The 'Night Ferry' was an international sleeper train between London Victoria and Paris Gare du Nord (and later also Brussels).

It was operated jointly by the SNCF and the Southern Railway Facilities for the shipment of cars to and from the Continent by the train-ferry service were launched on 28 June 1937, when a ramp connecting the shore with the steamer was used for the first time. On 14 January 1939 Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax travelled by way of Dover Marine, using the ‘Golden Arrow’ and the ‘Canterbury’, for Rome. This was to meet with Benito Mussolini, Italian Prime Minister and leader of the National Fascist Party, in an effort to persuade him not to become involved in the pending conflict. World War II was declared on 3 September 1939. Following the ‘Golden Arrow’s’ last trip, the ‘Canterbury’ left Dover for conversion into a troop carrying ship. The ship ‘Invicta’ was built in 1939 to take over from the ‘Canterbury’ but she was also commandeered for war work following her launch in 1940. Although the ferry service was once again curtailed the station remained operational handling hundreds of special trains during the Dunkirk evacuation.

On peak days some 60,000 men boarded special trains. All told nearly 200,000 British and Allied troops passed through Dover. Consistent shelling made it unsafe for the station to handle any kind of passenger traffic. On 12 May, during the evacuation, the town and port was declared a ‘Protected Area’, and following the evacuation Marine Station was closed with passenger services along the former SER route into Dover terminating at Folkestone. In June 1941 the station was reopened to military traffic going to the Second Front following Germany’s invasion of Russia. On 7 June 1940 the engine shed near Marine station received a direct hit with one serious injury. The Marine station came in for sustained shelling and on 25 September and on 12 September 1944 there was substantial damage to the roof during an air raid. After the war the Marine station was handed back to Southern Railway and another plaque was added to the station’s war memorial stating: 'And to the 626 men of the Southern Railway who gave their lives in the 1939-1945 war’.

The passenger ferries returned; on demobilisation, the ‘Invicta’ was converted to oil fuel having been originally designed to use Kent coal. She was fitted with radar and on 10 October 1946 came to Dover to take over the ‘Golden Arrow’ service. Pre-war passenger numbers were never regained owing to the popularity of the car, and when new car ferry services were introduced the number of rail passengers using the ferries dropped dramatically. To accommodate 12-car multiple-unit trains when the electrification from London via, Faversham started in June 1959, the two island platforms at Dover Marine were extended by 114ft, with 24ft ramps. The extensions comprised prefabricated concrete components, manufactured at Exmouth Junction concrete works. This necessitated altering the layout of the tracks at the London end and the construction of a riveted steel footbridge across the approach tracks from Dover Priory, linking the main entrance beside the ‘Lord Warden’ hotel with the Customs Hall, on the northern perimeter of the Western Docks. The bridge ran from the landing at the top of the stairs from the street entrance opposite the hotel.

During this work the station was closed for one week at the end of February 1959, and it reopened on 1 March. During that period cross-Channel services were diverted to Folkestone, apart from the car and train ferries, which worked as usual as the tracks to the train ferry dock were not affected. By the end of the week the track work had been completed, and the spans of the footbridge were erected. The full width of the extended platforms between tracks 3 and 4 and tracks 5 and 6 was provided with a W-shaped canopy without a valance for weather protection as it was outside the trainshed. A relay room was built alongside the signal box for the colour light signals that were brought into use with the electrification. Steam trains were still seen at the station after electrification as the Folkestone line was not electrified until 18 June 1962. Despite the new electrified service in face of further stiff competition from the car in the 1960s, the ‘Invicta’ made her last ‘Golden Arrow’ sailing on 8 August 1972, and the last ‘Golden Arrow’ train ran on 30 September that year.

Dover Marine was renamed Dover Western Docks on 14 May 1979, and although its future seemed secure the ‘Night Ferry’ was withdrawn on 31 October 1980. By this time the carriages were outdated and in need of replacement; they were not air conditioned, and during the ship voyage, while inside the ship, they became notably hot in summertime. This was exacerbated by the chaining of the vehicles to the ship's deck, an activity underneath the sleeping compartments which inevitably woke most passengers during the middle of the night. The carriages were over 40 years old and, by some margin, were the oldest passenger vehicles running on the British network. By mid 1985 the rails in the trainshed had been cut back at the south end to create a ground level passenger walkway behind the new buffers. A headshunt was, however, retained until 1992. Although the ferries were still well used at this time, when the first Channel Tunnel boring began on 1 December 1987 it soon became clear that the station's days were numbered.

The carriage shed to the west of the station was demolished in the mid 1980s and a new line was laid through the site to Admiralty Pier. Closure of the station was announced in a BR report published in 1989 titled 'Proposed closure of Dover Western Docks Station and Folkestone Harbour branch'. It was clear from the report that passenger ferries were an outdated mode of transport as the Channel Tunnel would be able to cater for all passenger requirements with a much faster and more efficient service. Any freight that could not be handled by the tunnel, such as chemicals and inflammable products, would be transferred to the Eastern Docks which were not rail-connected. On 25 September 1994 Dover Western Docks station was closed following the completion of the Channel Tunnel and concentration of remaining Dover ferry services on the Eastern Docks. After 'official' closure the station continued to be used by unadvertised passenger trains to Faversham until 19 November 1994 after which date they were classified as empty stock movements. After closure the station remained in operational use for train berthing and cleaning purposes.

All rail movements finally came to an end on 5 July 1995 with the closure of the signal box. Demolition and track-lifting commenced at the beginning of 1996. The Dover Harbour Board had hoped to demolish everything to build a new cruise terminal but the trainshed and the entrance building on Lord Warden Square were Grade II listed by English Heritage on 22 June 1989 so the only demolition related to the platform extensions that had been added in 1959. The trainshed was converted into a cruise liner terminal; this included filling the trackbed up to platform level to create car parking. All the buildings within the trainshed were retained as was the covered footbridge to the pedestrian entrance. Although not part of the listing, the signal box was also retained as offices although it was eventually demolished in 2000. Dover's £10 million Cruise Terminal (now known as Cruise Terminal 1) was opened in June 1996 by the Chairman and Chief Executive of Cunard Line during a visit by the ‘Royal Viking Sun’.

Dover Cruise Port is the second largest such port in the UK and in 2006 carried approximately 190,000 passengers travelling with 37 different cruise lines. Along with the removal of much of the old railway infrastructure at Dover Western Docks in 1979, the ‘Night Ferry’ enclosed dock was filled in and is now used as an aggregates terminal. An attempted resurrection of British–Continental sleeper services under the Nightstar (a play on Eurostar) brand after the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 was abandoned after many of the coaches (night coaches, sleepers, and food service cars) for it had been built. Competition from cheap airlines in the 1990s meant the service could never be profitable, and the proposed service faced daunting logistical problems as well. The coaches were never used in Europe; they were sold to Canada's Via Rail. Route maps drawn by Alan Young . Tickets from Michael Stewart except 0068 and 2590 Brian Halford . Bradshaw from Nick Catford . Special thanks to the Dover Historian web site for help with this feature.

Click here to see a film of a train journey between Folkestone Junction and Dover Priory in the 1920s. Sources: Dover Historian web site - The Golden Arrow Dover Historian web site - Train Ferry Dock A history of the Orient Express - the truth behind the legend... The truth behind the legend... The Orient Express . . . London to Central Asia & China via The Silk Route London to India overland Resident in France? Try Comments? Feedback? Need help? Email the Man in Seat Sixty-One! Sign the Thank you for visiting my site... An LX-series sleeping-car, built in 1929 for the Wagons-Lits Company, now restored for the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Is this the real Orient Express? On this page... The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE) from London to Venice. The end of the Orient Express: 12 Dec 2009... On 12 December 2009, EuroNight train number 469 Orient Express left Strasbourg on its final overnight run to Vienna, and on 13 December the celebrated name Orient Express disappeared forever from the official European timetables after 126 years.

True, the Orient Express may have been the ultimate example of a knife that's had its blade and its handle replaced many times, but this train was indeed the true descendant of that first 1883 Express d'Orient and it officially carried the name Orient Express. You can trace its evolution from timetable to timetable, year to year from 1883 to 2009. On its last run, the Orient Express had evolved into an Austrian Railways (ï¿½BB) EuroNight train, with one Austrian Railways air-conditioned sleeping-car (1 & 2 bed compartments, including two deluxe compartments with toilet and shower), two modern air-conditioned couchette cars with 4 & 6 berth compartments, and an Austrian seats car. The Orient Express was cut back to start in Strasbourg rather than Paris in June 2007 when the Paris-Strasbourg high-speed TGV line opened, so that it could no longer be attached to a French domestic train between Paris & Strasbourg. Although a TGV connection from Paris was provided, the writing was on the wall for this train when it stopped directly linking the French and Austrian capitals.

It had lost its Paris-Budapest Hungarian couchette car and Paris-Bucharest Romanian sleeping-car in June 2001, and it hadn't carried any through cars for Istanbul since the 1960s. You might now be a bit confused... ...because you thought that the Orient Express was a special luxury train, and that it originally stopped running in 1977, was then beautifully restored and put back into service and runs from London & Paris to Venice and costs a fortune to travel on and people like David Suchet & Terry Wogan travel on it and do TV programmes about it... The train you're probably thinking of is the privately-run Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE), which uses vintage restored sleeping-cars & dining-cars and costs around ï¿½2,000 per person between London & Venice. Wonderful though the VSOE is - you'll find more information about the VSOE here - it is certainly not the 'original' Orient Express (as there's no such thing) or the 'real' Orient Express (that's the train referred to above, withdrawn on 12 December 2009).

This page attempts to clear up some myths, put the Orient Express in context, and explain what the Orient Express really was. The destination board on the final (2009) incarnation of the Orient Express. Photo courtesy of Olivier Pierard The Orient Express about to leave Strasbourg for Vienna in summer 2009. It's ended its days as an Austrian Railways sleeper train. Photo courtesy of Olivier Pierard. Yes, the ( real ) Orient Express continued to run until 12 December 2009... The Orient Express referred to here and shown in these photographs was the real Orient Express, the actual true descendant of that first Express d'Orient that left Paris in October 1883. It was a normal scheduled EuroNight express, run by the Austrian national railways (ï¿½BB), and you could travel on it with normal tickets including InterRail and Eurail passes. Until 8 June 2007 it left Paris every evening at 17:16 and arrived in Vienna at 08:30 next morning.

From June 2007 onwards you needed to leave Paris around 17:54 by high-speed TGV train to connect with the Orient Express at Strasbourg. The Orient Express left Strasbourg at 20:37 and arrived in Vienna at 06:40 next morning. You can still travel from Paris to Vienna or Budapest by train today, see here . You can trace the history of the train pictured above from one year's railway timetable to the next all the way from 1883 to 2009, so the pedigree of this train is quite genuine - more so than either of the two expensive tourist trains of restored vintage rolling stock claiming to be the Orient Express (the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and the Nostalgic Orient Express), beautiful though they are. The photographs above show the real Orient Express about to leave Strasbourg for Vienna in summer 2009. The photos below date from around 2005 and show the Orient Express before being cut back to Strasbourg, about to leave Paris Gare de l'Est.

The gentleman is boarding the Paris-Vienna sleeping-car, which was staffed by personnel of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL), the company that operated the original Orient Express from its inception. However, since 1971 the Wagon-Lits Company has simply staffed the sleeping-car as a contractor instead of owning and operating the sleeping-car in their own right - they provide the attendant, the room service catering, bed linen, etc. for all OBB's sleeping-cars. The coach to the right marked liegewagen is one of the two modern Austrian Railways couchette cars, also as it happen staffed by the CIWL. The right-hand photo is a close-up of the destination label, clearly announcing the train as the EuroNight train Orient Express. I've used the Orient Express myself on many occasions over the years, the last occasion being a journey from Vienna to Paris on my return from Petra, Damascus, Aleppo, and (appropriately enough) Istanbul in September 2005. The Orient Express about to leave Paris for Vienna circa 2005, before being cut back to start in Strasbourg.

The car on the left is the sleeping-car, with carpeted 1, 2 & 3-bed rooms with washbasin. It's a type MU, built 1964-1974. The car on the right is one of two modern couchette cars with more basic 4- & 6-bunk compartments. A few other things you didn't know about the Orient Express... Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express isn't set on the Orient Express, it's set on the Simplon Orient Express. By the 1920s and 30s there were a whole inter-connecting network of Wagons-Lits company trains with Orient Express as part of their name in addition to the Orient Express itself. The Orient Express has always run from Paris Gare de l'Est via Munich, Vienna & Budapest, whereas the Simplon Orient Express started running in April 1919, taking a Southerly route from Calais and Paris Gare de Lyon to Milan, Venice, Trieste, Zagreb, Belgrade, Sofia and Istanbul, with a portion for Athens.

In the 1920s and 30s the Simplon Orient Express linked Calais, Paris and Istanbul every day, whereas the (plain) Orient Express only carried Paris-Istanbul cars three times a week, although both Orient and Simplon Orient would have been one combined train east of Belgrade. You can see the summer 1939 timetable for this train below. Graham Greene's book Stamboul Train isn't set on the Orient Express either - It's set on the 'Oostende-Vienna Orient Express'. This train ran from Oostende & Brussels via Frankfurt to Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and beyond, combining with cars of the Orient Express east of Vienna and with those of the Simplon Orient Express between Belgrade & Istanbul. In the 1960s its 3-times-a-week through sleeping car from Oostende to Istanbul was withdrawn, and the 'Oostende-Vienna Orient Express' became just plain 'Oostende-Vienna Express'. In 1991 the train's name was changed to 'Austria Nachtexpress', and in 1993 it was renamed again as the 'DonauWalzer'.

With the coming of Eurostar in 1994 and the ceasing of all Dover-Oostende ferry service, the Donauwalzer was cut back to start in Brussels rather than Oostende. The DonauWalzer survived as the Brussels-Vienna overnight train until December 2003 when it was withdrawn along with the Brussels-Milan, Brussels-Switzerland & Brussels-Copenhagen overnight trains as Belgian Railways finally pulled out of the long-distance sleeper train business. Today, Brussels-Vienna passengers need to change in Cologne onto an Austrian Nightjet sleeper train - which funnily enough has the sleeper attendant and on-board catering & service provided by a company called Newrest, a subsidiary of what's left of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, erstwhile operator of the Orient Express. In 1962 the daily Simplon Orient Express was replaced by a slower train, called the Direct Orient Express, which had a twice-weekly sleeping-car Paris to Istanbul. With typical inaccuracy, most journalists reported the withdrawal of the Direct Orient Express in May 1977 as the withdrawal of the Orient Express. Wrong.

The (plain) Orient Express continued to run until 2009, as the main overnight train between Paris and Vienna (Strasbourg & Vienna from June 2007). Until 2001, it also had through cars to Budapest and (in the form of a through sleeper on certain days of the week) Bucharest. You can see the summer 1965 timetable for the Direct Orient Express below. Don't confuse the real Orient Express (a scheduled railway service between Paris and Vienna which ran until 2009) with the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE) run by VSOE Ltd, a special train of restored vintage ex-Wagon-Lits Company sleeping cars, or the Nostalgic Orient Express, a similar operation. The VSOE is the one most people have heard of, costing about ï¿½2,000 or more per person from London to Venice. See the VSOE page . The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express website ( ) actually lists an FAQ 'Is the VSOE train the original Orient Express?' and suggests that the answer is 'yes'. Let's get one thing clear.

There isn't, and cannot be, any such thing as the 'original' Orient Express, for a very good reason. Take air travel. Suppose there's a British Airways flight to New York called 'Flight BA123'. Is there an actual unique aircraft called 'Flight BA123'? Of course not. 'Flight BA123' is a abstract concept, a service, a departure, something which appears in the timetable, in the reservation system and on your ticket. BA own a whole fleet of whichever type of aircraft is required to operate flight BA123 to New York, and any of these might be used to run that flight on any given day. And if flight BA123 existed in the timetables 30 years ago, I bet it would have been operated with different design of aircraft than it is today. So it is with the Orient Express. It was and is a service, and not a particular set of rolling stock. In any case, it would have used different rolling stock at different periods in its history, and at any given time it would have required several sets of rolling stock to operate.

Think about it - in its heyday in the 1930s, it ran daily from Paris to Istanbul, a journey that took three nights. On any given night, there must have been one Simplon Orient Express leaving Paris, another on its second night out from Paris, a third approaching Istanbul on the last night of its journey, and another three Simplon Orient Expresses travelling in the other direction towards Paris. So there must have been at least six sets of rolling stock! Furthermore, both the Venice Simplon Orient Express and Nostalgic Orient Express use LX-type sleeping-cars dating from 1929, the most spacious and luxurious cars built for the Wagon-Lits company. However, the real Orient Express and its sister trains didn't in fact use LX sleepers, at least not for the through cars from Calais to Istanbul & Athens. Before the war, the Orient Express used S-type sleeping-cars on the Calais-Istanbul and Calais-Athens run (dating from 1922, a few years older than the LX's with slightly smaller compartments and without all the wood marquetry of the LX sleepers), and after the war the Z-type .

LX sleepers were used on the trains such as the Train Bleu between Calais/Paris and the South of France, the Rome Express from Calais/Paris to Rome and on the Paris-Berlin-Warsaw-Riga Nord Express. The Calais-Trieste sleeping car attached to the Simplon Orient Express and the Paris-Istanbul and Paris-Athens sleepers would have been LX-types in the 1930s. The Orient Express in its heyday - What was it really like? This might give you an idea of what travelling on the Orient Express was like in its heyday. Departure from Istanbul... Imagine it is the mid-1930s, and you are in Istanbul. You dine at the Pera Palas Hotel , the hotel established by the Wagons-Lits Company in 1894 specifically to cater for Orient Express clientele, and still a great hotel today. About 9pm, you head down to Sirkeci station for the 22:00 departure of the Orient Express.

You need to eat beforehand, because there is no restaurant car attached to the Orient Express when it leaves Istanbul - this isn't attached until Kapikule on the Turkish/Bulgarian border, in time to serve breakfast. At Sirkeci station, under the station lights, you catch you first glimpse of the blue and gold sleeping-cars of the Orient Express. It's a very short train - Just four sleeping-cars, with a baggage van (fourgon in French) at either end. The train isn't so much a train as a collection of through sleeping cars, made up as follows: Two sleeping-cars make up the Simplon Orient Express from Istanbul to Paris Gare de Lyon via Sofia, Belgrade, Zagreb, Trieste, Venice, Milan, Lausanne, and Dijon. Just one of these two sleepers goes through to Calais for the London connection.

Depending on the day of the week, the third sleeping-car is either the 3-times-a-week Orient Express sleeping-car for Paris Gare de l'Est via Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna, Munich and Strasbourg, or the 3-times-a-week Oostende-Vienna Orient Express sleeper for Brussels and Oostende (with a boat connection for Dover for the train to London) via Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna, Frankfurt and Cologne. Depending on the day of the week, the fourth sleeping-car is either Istanbul-Berlin (4 times a week) or Istanbul-Prague (3 times a week). On board the Orient Express sleeping-cars... Each S-type sleeping-car has 10 wood-panelled compartments with either one or two beds (one above the other) plus a washbasin - there are no baths or showers on board. The sleeper compartments convert for daytime use into a compact carpeted sitting room with sofa and small table. There is no lounge car or seats car, at least not this side of Trieste. Agatha Christie needed a 'pullman' salon car for dramatic purposes in 'Murder on the Orient Express', so uses some dramatic licence and writes one into her story.

Very wealthy passengers travelling alone might pay for sole occupancy of a 2-bed compartment, but other passengers would share a compartment with another passenger of the same sex. Shunting around at Belgrade... At Belgrade the following day, the sleepers bound for Berlin or Prague and Oostende or Paris Gare de l'Est are detached and shunted on to a train for Budapest. Meanwhile, the Istanbul-Paris and Istanbul-Paris-Calais sleeping-cars of the 'Simplon Orient Express' (plus one of the baggage vans) are attached to an Athens-Paris and an Athens-Paris-Calais sleeping-car that have arrived in Belgrade from Greece a little earlier. Hercule Poirot's situation will now be clear to aficionados of 'Murder on the Orient Express' - he is travelling to London, so needs to reach Calais. However, he is unable to get a berth in the Istanbul-Calais sleeper of the Simplon Orient Express 'because the whole world travels tonight...'. Instead, he takes a spare berth in the SOE's Istanbul-Paris sleeper, but it is '...for one night only...' as he will transfer to a spare berth in the Athens-Calais sleeper when it is attached at Belgrade.

Agatha Christie knew her trains..! The Simplon Orient Express gains some more cars along the way - for example, another sleeping-car (a luxurious 'LX' type) for Calais is added at Trieste. Locomotives are changed at every frontier where one national railway system hands over to another, and also at other places in between - for example, Milan Centrale is a terminus, so the train reverses there and gets a fresh locomotive on the other end. Arrival in Paris At Paris Gare de Lyon, three nights out of Istanbul, the Simplon Orient Express terminates. The through sleepers to Calais are shunted around the Paris 'ceinture' (literally 'belt' line) from the Gare de Lyon to the Gare du Nord, where they are attached to a train for Calais. All change at Calais for the London connection... No, the sleeping cars aren't loaded onto the ferry at Calais!

The only passenger coaches ever to be physically ferried across the Channel were the London-Paris (and for a while, London-Brussels) sleeping cars of the Night Ferry , which started in 1936, was suspended a few years later for World War II, then ran after the war until withdrawal in 1980. Orient Express passengers for London have to leave their sleeping-cars at Calais Maritime and board a ferry for Dover. At Dover, a British Southern Railway 'boat train' is waiting to take them non-stop to London Victoria. Orient Express, Arlberg Orient Express... Incidentally, you can see that in the 1930s the Orient Express itself (as opposed to the Simplon Orient Express) ran three times a week from Paris Gare de l'Est - Munich - Vienna - Budapest - Belgrade - Istanbul. It also conveyed a Paris - Budapest - Bucharest sleeper, and a Calais - Budapest - Bucharest sleeper.

On three days of the week when it wasn't running, its departure slot from the Gare de l'Est was taken up by the Arlberg Orient Express, which took a Southerly route through Switzerland (via Basel and Innsbruck) to reach Vienna. It also had Paris - Vienna - Budapest - Bucharest and Calais-Bucharest sleepers, maintaining an almost daily Wagons-Lits service between these cities. You can begin to see how the network fitted together... Direct Orient Express, 1965... Below: The 1965 timetable for the Direct Orient Express, which replaced the Simplon Orient Express in 1962. You can see from the long list of through cars that this train isn't a whole train running from A to B either, but an assortment of through carriages between different points. You can see that it now includes ordinary seats cars (the carriage symbol) and couchettes ('CC') as well as sleeping-cars (the bed symbol). Note that the departure time shown against London is the departure time of a train+ferry connection. The actual Direct Orient Express starts in Paris with a few through cars from Calais.

Reproduced with kind permission from the 1965 edition of the Thomas Cook Continental Timetable, ï¿½ Thomas Cook. A chronology of the Orient Express... 1876: A Belgian, Georges Nagelmackers, founds La Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, to operate luxury sleeping cars and dining cars all over Europe, much as George Mortimer Pullman was doing in the USA... The various national railway companies provide the track, the stations and the locomotives. The Wagons-Lits company provides and staffs the sleeping-cars and dining cars. Passengers pay for a 1st class ticket plus a Wagons-Lits supplement. The railway companies get the ticket revenue, the Wagons-Lits company get the revenue from the supplement. 1883: Nagelmackers' flagship, the 'Express d'Orient', starts running, twice a week, Paris (Gare de l'Est) - Strasbourg-Munich-Vienna-Budapest-Bucharest-Giurgiu. At Giurgiu, passengers cross the Danube by ferry to Ruse in Bulgaria, where a second train would be waiting for the 7-hour journey to Varna on the Black Sea.

An Austrian Lloyd steamer then connects for the 14-hour sea voyage to Constantinople (Istanbul). 1885: Service increases to daily over the Paris-Munich-Vienna section. The Orient Express continues to operate on two days a week beyond Vienna to Giurgiu for the ferry to Ruse, the connecting train to Varna and ship to Istanbul, and on a third day each week it runs beyond Vienna to Belgrade and Nis. As the railway was incomplete in Bulgaria, horse-drawn carriages took passengers from Nis across the mountains to Plovdiv, where the rail journey resumed for Istanbul. 1889: The line is completed, and direct Paris-Constantinople operation starts in June 1889. The Orient Express leaves Paris (Gare de Strasbourg, now renamed Gare de l'Est) every night at 18:25. It has daily sleepers for Vienna, twice-weekly sleepers on Sundays & Wednesdays for Constantinople, and twice-weekly sleepers on Monday & Friday for Bucharest. Arrival in Constantinople was at 16:00, 3 nights (67.5 hours) from Paris.

1891: 'Express d'Orient' is officially renamed 'Orient Express'. 1909: The Orient Express trainsets are re-equipped with new sleepers and restaurant cars. The new sleepers feature softer suspension and an upper berth which folds more completely away for day use. 1914: The Orient Express is suspended from July 1914, due to the war. The Germans try to run a Berlin-Constantinople train, the 'Balkanzug', without much success. 1919: In February 1919 the Orient Express is reinstated, twice a week from Paris to Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest, but via Zurich and the Arlberg Pass into Austria to avoid Germany. It resumes operation through Germany in 1920, although suspended again 1923-24 with the occupation of the Ruhr. 1919: On 11 April 1919 the Simplon Orient Express starts running in addition to the Orient Express, using the Southerly route from Paris (Gare de Lyon) to Lausanne, Milan, Venice, Trieste, Belgrade, and (from 1920 onwards) Istanbul.

This route has the advantage of avoiding Germany (which the Allies still didn't trust), and it rapidly becomes the main route from Calais and Paris to Istanbul. The Treaty of Versailles has a specific clause requiring Austria to accept this train - previously, Austria had insisted that international trains could not pass through their territory (which then included Trieste) unless they ran via Vienna. 1922: From 1922 onwards, the pre-war wooden R-class sleepers are progressively replaced by new steel S-type sleeping-cars. The new cars are painted blue with gold lining and lettering, replacing the varnished teak of earlier Wagons-Lits cars. Blue and gold all-steel dining cars replace the older restaurant cars from 1925 onwards. 1929: The westbound Orient Express becomes stuck in snow for 5 days at Tcherkesskeuy (spelt ï¿½erkezkï¿½y in today's timetables), some 130km from Istanbul. The incident inspired Agatha Christie's plot in Murder on the Orient Express.

1930s: By the 1930s, a complete network of through sleeping cars was in operation between Western and Central/Eastern Europe, involving the Orient Express and several sister trains with 'Orient' as part of their name. The trains inter-connected and swapped sleeping-cars at various points such as Budapest and Belgrade: Simplon Orient Express: Daily through sleeping cars from Calais & Paris (Gare de Lyon) to Istanbul, via Dijon - Lausanne - Milan - Venice - Trieste - Zagreb - Belgrade - Sofia. The Simplon Orient Express also provided daily though sleeping-cars from Calais and Paris to Athens. The Calais-Trieste, Paris-Athens & Paris-Istanbul sleepers were normally luxurious LX-type sleeping-cars, but the Calais-Istanbul & Calais-Athens sleeping-cars would normally be S-types . Orient Express: 3 times a week service from Paris Gare de l'Est - Strasbourg - Munich - Vienna - Budapest, with through sleeping-cars from Calais & Paris to Bucharest, and from Paris to Istanbul (combined with the Simplon Orient Express between Belgrade and Istanbul).

Arlberg Orient Express: On 3 out of the 4 days of the week when the Orient Express wasn't running, its departure slot from Paris Est was taken up with the three-times-a-week Arlberg Orient Express from Paris to Basel, Zurich, Innsbruck, Vienna, Budapest, with through sleepers Calais & Paris - Bucharest and Paris-Athens. This train was created in 1932 out of the Suisse Arlberg Vienna Express. The trains also conveyed an Istanbul-Berlin sleeping car 4 times a week, alternating with an Istanbul-Prague car 3 times a week. 1939-42: Most of the great trains are suspended for world war 2. The Wagons-Lits Company's arch rival, the German Mitropa company, tried running its own Orient Express into the Balkans reserved for military and diplomatic personnel, but this was not a success as partisans kept blowing it up... 1945-7: The Simplon Orient resumes running in November 1945, three times a week Calais - Paris - Milan -Venice - Belgrade - Sofia, finally extended to Istanbul again in 1947.

However, ordinary railway company seating cars and couchette cars are now conveyed for various parts of the journey, in addition to the Wagon-Lits company sleepers and restaurant. Although service to Istanbul restarted, the through sleeping cars to Athens were unable to resume because the Greek / Yugoslav border was closed. At this period, a Z-class sleeper was normally used Paris-Belgrade, a luxurious LX-class sleeper Paris-Brig, and S-class sleepers Paris-Istanbul. Later, Z-class sleepers would also end up on the Paris-Istanbul & Athens run. 1947 onwards: With communists firmly in control in eastern Europe, the Wagons-Lits Company's sleeping-car and dining car operations in Eastern Bloc countries are gradually taken over by the eastern European railway companies' own sleeping-car and dining car subsidiaries. Although the Orient Express through sleeping-cars from western to eastern Europe remain operated by the Wagons-Lits Company, Wagons-Lits sleepers and diners operating on these trains wholly within Eastern Bloc borders are progressively replaced by non-Wagons-Lits cars. 1951: The Greek border reopens and the Athens portion of the Simplon Orient Express resumes running.

Unfortunately, the Bulgarian / Turkish border then closed, temporarily halting the Istanbul portion until 1952. 1960: The through sleeping cars to / from Calais are withdrawn and all cars of the Simplon Orient Express now start / terminate at Paris Gare de Lyon. The Pullman cars of the Calais - Paris Golden Arrow / Fleche d'Or are extended to run around Paris from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de Lyon to maintain a connection (the Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon trip was necessary anyway to convey the through sleeping-car from Calais to San Remo bound for the Train Bleu and the Calais to Rome through sleeping-car bound for the Rome Express). 1962: The Simplon Orient Express is withdrawn and replaced by a slower train called the Direct Orient Express.

The Direct Orient Express conveys a daily sleeping car and seats cars Calais-Paris-Milan, a daily sleeping car and seats cars Paris (Gare de Lyon) - Milan - Venice - Trieste - Belgrade, a twice-weekly sleeping car and seats car Paris - Belgrade - Istanbul (initially a Z-type , later a YU-type sleeping-car), and a three-times-a-week (later twice weekly) sleeping car Paris - Belgrade - Athens (also a Z-type or YU-type car). 1962: In addition, the Arlberg Orient Express loses its Paris-Budapest and Paris-Bucharest sleepers, and becomes plain Arlberg Express running Paris-Zurich-Innsbruck-Vienna. It continues in the timetables as the Arlberg Express until the mid-1990s, when it loses it's Vienna and Innsbruck cars and becomes just an overnight train Paris-Zurich-Chur, still with a sleeper staffed by the Wagons-Lits company, but without any name.

This Paris-Zurich-Chur sleeper train was finally withdrawn in June 2007, when the new TGV-Est high-speed line reduced Paris-Zurich journey time to 4 hours 45 minutes. 1967: The Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits drops the suffix 'et des grands express Europï¿½ens' from its title and adds 'et du tourisme' instead. 1971: The Wagons-Lits company decides that it can no longer maintain and renew the ageing sleeping car fleet based on receiving revenue from sleeper supplements alone (passengers travelling on the Orient express paid for a normal ticket plus a sleeper supplement - the supplement went to the Wagons-Lits Company, the ticket revenue went to the relevant national railway operators). The Wagons-Lits Company therefore either sells or leases its sleeping cars to the national railway operators all over Europe. Although now owned or leased by the various state railway companies themselves, most sleeping-cars in Western Europe are still staffed by the Wagons-Lits company who provide the sleeper attendant, the bed linen and the on-board catering.

Until 1995, sleeping cars were marketed jointly by most western European railways as "Trans Euro Night / Nuit / Nacht / Notte / Nat" and painted in a mid-blue livery with a white line under the windows and a big white 'TEN' on the side. 1977: The Direct-Orient Express is withdrawn completely, ending all direct service from Paris to Istanbul or Athens. The last run left Paris Gare de Lyon at 23:56 on 19 May 1977 (actually, a few minutes late, on 20th May!), it's solitary Paris-Istanbul sleeping-car a Y-type car built in 1939, now in the modern blue and white livery. A rump of this train remains until the early 1990s, running from Paris (and in summer, from Calais) to Milan and Venice with sleepers, seats and couchettes. The (plain) Orient Express from Paris to Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest continues to run as before. 1977 onwards: The Orient Express itself continues to run, as the main overnight train between Paris and Vienna, also providing direct through cars between Paris, Budapest & Bucharest.

It conveys ï¿½BB (Austrian Federal Railways) or SNCF (French Railways) couchettes and seats between Paris & Vienna, a MAV (Hungarian Railways) air-conditioned couchette car & seats car between Paris & Budapest, a Hungarian dining-car and more air-conditioned seats cars over the Salzburg-Vienna-Budapest section. It also conveys a sleeping car, owned by ï¿½BB but staffed by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, running daily between Paris & Vienna and (until 1991) extended to Bucharest 3 times a week full of Caucesceau's diplomats. This sleeping-car was a standard MU type in mid-blue 'Trans Euro Night' colours, built 1964-1974, with 12 compartments each usable as 1, 2 or 3 bed. 1980s: In the 80s, a faster and better-timed train ran between Paris & Vienna during the summer months ('the Paris-Vienna rapide'), in addition to the Orient Express.

The Orient Express's Paris-Vienna seat cars, couchette cars & sleeping-car were transferred to this train when it ran. The Paris-Vienna rapide left Paris earlier than the Orient Express, around 17:15 whereas the Orient Express left the Gare de l'Est at 23:15, and it arrived in Vienna the next morning, as opposed to mid-afternoon. On the days of the week when the Paris-Vienna sleeping-car was extended to Bucharest, it would have a long layover at Vienna waiting to be attached to the Orient Express for its onward journey to Romania. 1982: James Sherwood, rail enthusiast and head of Sea Containers Inc., starts up a regular service from London and Paris to Venice called the 'Venice Simplon-Orient-Express' (VSOE for short). The service uses vintage 1920s and 1930s Pullmans from London to the Channel port, and 1929-vintage Wagons-Lits sleepers from Boulogne to Venice. This train should not be confused with the (real, plain) Orient Express.

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express continues to run today, once a week from March until November every year - see the section below and the VSOE's official website, . 1991: The thrice-weekly extension of the Orient Express's sleeping-car to Bucharest is withdrawn. The train now only runs between Paris, Vienna & Budapest, with sleeping-car, couchettes & seats Paris-Vienna, couchettes & seats cars Paris-Budapest, seats car & restaurant car Vienna-Budapest. It no longer extends to Romania. 1998: Surprisingly perhaps, the Orient Express regains a Paris-Bucharest sleeping car, running twice a week, this time a separate one provided by CFR (Romanian Railways). This was a modern German-built sleeper in a smart red and cream colour scheme, with ten compartments each useable as 1, 2 or 3 berth. 2001: On 10 June 2001, the Orient Express's through couchettes and seats cars from Paris to Budapest are withdrawn, as is the twice-weekly Romanian sleeping-car from Paris to Bucharest.

The Orient Express now only runs between Paris & Vienna, a normal scheduled EuroNight train with seats, couchettes and a sleeping-car. The Paris-Vienna couchette cars & sleeping-car are attached to a French domestic train between Paris and Strasbourg. On departure from Paris, the majority of the train consist of domestic French air-conditioned 'Corail' cars only going as far as Strasbourg, with the sleeping-car, two couchette cars and two seats cars for Vienna attached a long way down the platform right at the front of the train. June 2007: The new TGV-Est high speed line from Paris to Strasbourg opened on 10 June 2007, and the domestic French Paris-Strasbourg train to which the Orient Express was attached over this section has been replaced by a 200 mph TGV. As a result, the Orient Express is cut back to run only between Strasbourg and Vienna, with TGV connection to/from Paris. However, it still retains its famous name, 'Orient Express'. It's now a purely Austrian Railways (ï¿½BB) EuroNight sleeper train.

12 December 2009, the Orient Express makes its last run: The much-truncated Strasbourg-Vienna Orient Express made its last run on 12 December 2009. From the Europe-wide timetable change on 13 December, the name Orient Express finally disappears. In a way it's hardly surprising since being cut back to Strasbourg. Strasbourg itself is unable to support a sleeper train to Vienna and little effort seems to have been made to integrate fares, ticketing & marketing between the sleeper and it's Strasbourg-Paris TGV connection to offer an integrated Paris-Vienna service. You can still travel from Paris to Vienna by train of course, as shown on the Austria page . Present day: How would you travel by train between London, Paris and Istanbul today? See the London to Istanbul page ! The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE)... These days, the train which most people mean when they talk about the Orient Express is the Venice Simplon Orient Express (VSOE).

The Venice Simplon Orient Express is a privately-run train (in fact, two trains, one on each side of the Channel) of restored 1920s, 30s, & 50s coaches, providing a once-a-week service London-Paris-Venice between March and November. The complete London-Venice journey costs around ï¿½1,920 per person one way, including meals. Its official website is . For more information, see the Venice Simplon Orient Express page . Books about the Orient Express... Click the pictures to buy these books online at Amazon. The book on the far left has more about the history of the Orient Express, the book on the right concentrates on the restored Venice Simplon Orient Express. The red book is a reprint of the 1913 Bradshaw's timetable - showing the Orient Express! Also recommended is 'The Orient Express - The life and times of the world's most famous train' by E H Cookridge. Although out of print, you can buy it second hand through Amazon - click here for details .

Question: What was the name of the daily train service that ran between London and Paris until 1972?
Answer: THE GOLDEN ARROW