There are many great trains in the world.
I can remember when I was a school boy living in Berkshire U.K. We lived near the main railway line from London. It was
about 1 mile from where I lived and we spent many an hour sitting on the fence near the line. We all had books with the names
and numbers of passenger trains, and use to mark off the trains numbers as they passed. I wish I could have kept those books.
They would have brought back so many happy memories.
The most famous of the great trains is the Flying Scotsman. The train was built in 1923 and used to pull the London to
Edinburgh express. The Flying Scotsman was preserved in 1963 and toured America and Australia. It still works special trains
in Great Britain.
The Orient Express is probably the most well know train. The Orient Express began its service in 1883, starting out in Paris
and traveling through to Istanbul, crossing six countries with the cooperation of ten different railroads. Most of the passengers
were often Diplomats, Royalty or Government couriers. There was also the famous five course French meals.
The Trans-Siberian Express, is not as well know, but was one of the great trains. The Trans-Siberian Express traveled between
Moscow and Vladivostok. It was the longest regular train trip in the world covering 5, 778 miles. It made ninety one stops over
the course of nine days. During the Cold War, Westerners could only travel in compartments, where they were subject to
propaganda on Stalinism, played on loudspeakers.
For the Americans. The famous 20th Century Limited made its debut in 1902, as the New York Central’s luxury train. It
operated between New York and Chicago. The journey took it along the Hudson River and the shores of Lake Erie. The
railroad rolled out the ’Red Carpet’ to passengers, giving rise to the phrase the ’’red carpet treatment’’.