1. "Its name has become a byword for luxury and intrigue and adventure." Unique throwback The Venice Simplon Orient Express (VSOE) to give it its full title is, confusingly, not the only train to be called "Orient Express." The train passes through some of Europe‘s most beautiful scenery There is also a standard daily ‘Orient Express‘ rail service between Paris and Vienna; A "Nostalgic Orient Express" running sporadically from Zurich to Istanbul and Athens; and luxury ‘Orient Express‘ trains in, respectively, America and China.

2. Within six years trains were running direct to Constantinople via Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia, while the completion of the Simplon tunnel beneath the Alps in 1'06 led to the opening of a second, southerly route via Lausanne, Milan, Venice and Trieste –– locomotives going this way were styled the "Simplon Orient Express." The next 30 years comprised the heyday of the service, when its trains were used by everyone from royalty to spies, diplomats to millionaire businessmen, and it became immortalized in such literary works as Graham Greene‘s Stamboul Train (1'32) and Agatha Christie‘s Murder on the Orient Express (1'34). The latter, incidentally, was originally titled Murder on the Calais Coach.