Venice Simplon-Orient-Express – cabins & carriages explained | The Luxury Holiday Company

Part of the charm of travelling on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is that no two carriages on the train are identical. The original Orient Express was a service rather than a specific train and used different rolling stock throughout its lifetime from 1883. By the 1920s the Orient Express left Paris daily on a three-night journey to Istanbul, so there were at least six Orient Express trains in operation at any one time. By the 1930s the service expanded with a further five European routes in operation including services to Budapest, Bucharest, Athens, Zurich, Vienna and Brussels to name but a few.

When the train was lovingly brought back to life in the 1980s, from two original Orient Express carriages which the owner at the time, James Sherwood, had tracked down in an auction in 1977 – it took a further six years to find another 25 original cars and create the train we know as the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express today.

Given the vintage of different carriages, each has a history of its own, which makes for a rather enjoyable meander down the train when you are en route to, or back from, the restaurant and bar cars. Every carriage displays a plaque with its history – from carriage 3309 believed to have been the original inspiration for Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ to carriage 3544 used as a brothel during World War II, and of course carriage 3674, otherwise known as the Bar Car. Each carriage has its own marquetry design, upholstery and fittings and finishings – many modelled on original vintage designs.