The American Orient Express
Вставка
- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- The Orient Express has long been one of the most famous trains in the world and served as the basis for the United States' ultimate mainline excursion. How well could European elegance and luxury hold its own on the other side of the pond?
Timestamps:
2:20 - American European Express
4:00 - American Orient Express
7:05 - Grandluxe Express
8:30 - The Remaining Traces
Further reading:
www.themetrain...
utahrails.net/...
To continue to see updates, photos, and new videos from High Iron, including San Juan Branch Line, follow us at these links:
Patreon: / highironvideos
Facebook: / highironvideos
As someone who was lucky enough to have went on an AOE trip back in 2007, the service was something every railfan deserves. The food, the accommodations, everything was so luxurious, that even my then-9 year old self couldn’t help but love it.
IMO, the main obstacle facing a re-emergence of the AOE (or some similar iteration) is the same one facing Amtrak: uncooperative freight railroads. Unlike with Amtrak though (which has both an effectively-nonstop funding source and ROW mandate protections from the federal government), the AOE relied pretty much completely on venture capital to maintain its basic operations, which (even with high ridership numbers) quickly became a problem when vast amounts of resources had to be poured into trackage rights, scheduling, and motive power leases (both for the main leased Amtrak units, as well as emergency rescues by freight locomotives). Add on the constantly-increasing costs of maintaining 60+ year old Pullman cars, and you have a very volatile business model that’s almost completely reliant upon external factors for its success. In the present day, the only way I can see this type of service being profitable is by having an existing freight railroad (or one of its subsidiaries) operating the service, as this would effectively eliminate many of the coordination and funding issues the AOE had. Until then though, all we have is memories unfortunately
Very interesting it seems alot of people forget this train existed but I knew about it from a documentary film that also had the Grand Canyon railroad and the Alaska railroad In it
For those who don’t know , the original (am I mean the first) Ran between Constantinople (Ottoman Empire) and France (3rd republic)
The Ottoman Empire had territory spanning as far as The Levant (Israel and Palestine) on the eastern edge of Europe
The Latin word for East is orient, thus the orient express
There is no such thing as the 6th french republic, the republic of France of today is the 5th one.
The Levant is nowhere near the eastern edge of Europe, it would be what today we call Middle East Asia.
@@Antimanele104 So the first one is correct, (that was a typo)
But no your fighting me with a modern European map. In the 1800s turkey had land as far as Bulgaria and Greece thus it was in Europe, turkey also had land in the levant (a lot of it) meaning most maps included the levant as apart of a European nation.
@@prairierailproductions6737 Geograpically, the Levant was never part of Europe. And the eastern part of Europe would be the Ural Mountains in Russia. The Ottoman empire was more in the south-southeast corner of Europe.
@@Antimanele104 The levant was politically part of Europe at this time. It was sought after territory of interest by European nations and before the age of exploration was home to European kingdoms with European rulers.
Before you say it, Maps at this time (and today) were used to determine political influences on certain different regions. Thus a political link could still explain the presence of the levant on most European maps
Also the urals aren’t apart of Europe
I have a vivid memory from when I was very young of seeing the American European Express consist fly past while visiting the New Braunfels Railroad Museum, just 30 miles north of San Antonio, Texas. For years I've debated if it was the AOE/AEE at all (but I recall that gorgeous Royal Blue & Cream livery so clearly, it couldn't be anything else), or if it was a storage move or a real service. Hearing about the Branson Excursions has solved a lifelong mystery. Thank you so much!
Ayyyy, glad to help!
Awesome video! Really wished this train was still around. I remember seeing it in Savannah, GA back in either 2004 or 2005 during one of its all day stops and the crew was even nice enough to let guests on board to take a peek.
The ultimate great American rail journey that was taken too soon
I worked on this Train for 5 years. Some good memories some bad.
Thank you for covering this! I found a documentary about this and was very interested in it's history.
Our pleasure!
11.000 dollars for the trip? For that you can afford to go to Venice by plane, take the VSOE to Paris and then fly back to the US.
Amazing video. I have a VHS tape featuring the American Orient Express. The route featured is the National Parks of the west
The Rockies by Rail.
FIRST!!!
Thanks for the education over this year. I really appreciate learning about US railway networks and history.
You bet!
Third! Love this train. Such a shame I never got to ride it. I love luxury rail travel so much.
I worked for American European express from 11/1989-5/1991 as a sleeping car porter.
Dude I heard of this before yeah I watched World Class Trains and this is on one them
I had never heard of this, that's really cool.
Nothing like American ambition to recreate the greatness of the past.
11:36 You will make the 5th Full Steam Ahead and I will see again Twila?
So, I love this channel a lot. And I like N&W A lot. So if you can do some history on N&W And for the Y6's and J classes, and others that would be great!
There actually was another one called rail cruise America for a while. What happened to that is Kansas City Southern thought that and it became one of its business trains.
Cool train. I like the color on the passenger cars.
Those cars reminds me of Frisco 1522 excursion cars and Baltimore & Ohio like the ones you see on csx new painted F40PH
Anyone glad that 3 of the railcars from AEE/AOE are still in charter service?
The funny thing is that the shots of these cars were all less than a week apart, with no prior knowledge that they were out and about.
@@HighIron Amazing catches then
At that high price it's comparable to the wealthy folks who rode on the Concord jetliner. These "high iron" videos are great and factual!👍
The main problem is Amtrak . These sort of trains aren’t allowed access to normal tracks and have to be pulled by Amtrak engines. The US doesn’t support this type of service. My wife and I are flying to Scotland to take a 4 day trip on the Royal Scotsman 11 grand that I’d be happy to spend in the US but the regulations won’t allow that sort of experience. Many guests on many luxury train experiences around the world are Americans. The market is here the service is not finding a welcome place on US rail systems. Sad but true
I actually searched for this earlier today. Such a coincidence.
Until funding can be had to run passenger cars across country again on dedicated routes and sharing very little to no track with freight, I have my doubts passenger trains will go across country again. Maybe if airline travel gets hit harder, then I could see it. Maybe airlines would put up the Capitol to make new routes.
What software/videogame do you use to film trains?
Trainz: A New Era
Ok, Make a video about Orient Express At Worlds Of Fun.
I remember seeing this train years ago, and it was at the rail yard in Pawtucket
Woah , just got the notification with i was playing MSTS , what a Awesome video i must say , i was also driving the Orient express in MSTS lol
MSTS is still playable on modern systems?
@@HighIron well i downloaded it on my PC and it worked fine! But i got a brazilian version , talking about trains , do you know where i can contact Stevelerro? I am searching for Marlboro's PRR K4 , Where could i find him in the forums?
@@menaravaladao3520 He's just, "stevelerro" on the forums.
I actually have to Go On The Trainz DLC To Remember This Train Actually Was Real
Why did this train have to pretend to be a European train? Weren't American trains good enough?
I feel like you should do some sort of video about Norfolk and Western. May not be your cup of Joe but that's alright.
Zamn
1,472 views, as of my viewing.
Heh.
Noice.
Edit: And after watching the video all the way through, a job well done on the research and overall quality of the video.
It happens. :V
And thanks, really tried my best with this.
It's making me think of the Murder on the Orient Express
It sure is an interesting story about luxury rail travel in the United States. Happy to see this channel grow and I continue to support this channel by not skipping ads during videos. Here’s to 2022!
Hehe, thanks. Every little bit helps.
I remember seeing this train many times in Charleston, SC around fall
Just a testament to the sad state of train travel here in the US.. Very little choice in class of service
Should check out CP Canadian still Running
Love the train, and the story behind it. Wonderful train! Thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it
I hope Istanbul is not angry
Where do I find to download American European Express and American Orient Express rolling stock trains?
It clearly says at 11:04...
Omg YES I've been waiting for someone to cover this train. Thank you so much!!
Our pleasure!
Good video
All holiday and happy new year
You guys are doing amazing keep it up and merry early Christmas
Thanks! You too!
has there ever been a murder on the orient express?
These endeavors so miss the point -- the original Orient became first famous and then legendary because it was the fastest way to get from Paris to Venice or Istanbul. The Sunset, Broadway and 20th Century Ltds were similarly celebrated for their speed as much as for their luxury. Reducing these revival efforts to the status of cruise ships is to subvert their original purpose and make them as utterly and self-indulgently useless as, indeed, cruise ships, these latter being perhaps the most unneccesary mechanical devices ever contrived by the hand of man. . Given the distances involved in North America, it's unlikely a train will ever again provide the quickest service between East and West Coasts,. but it should be noted that for a time at least, the current Paris-Simplon-Venice service was the fastest non-aviation means of traversing Europe, a distinction that's now been taken over by various of the Eurostar and German ICE operations. My thought is a luxury, high-speed service from, say, Paris to Berlin (among others) might be of interest to a lot of travelers.
🙄
I’m afraid you completely miss the point and appeal of this sort of luxury train service. The point isn’t to get to the destination as fast as possible, it is to enjoy the journey as much as possible. To in fact slow down and smell the roses. Life goes by quickly, people get treated like just another number and not with personal care and service. Luxury train trips are an opportunity to get an indulgent personal experience, see new things and take time to meet like minded people. It’s not about a bullet train.
@@jeffhreid I take your point, but do you really think a first-class booking on La Normandie or the Venice-Simplon or the Sunset in their days would have found you being treated like a mere face in the crowd? The point of "travel," by definition is get to the destination as fast as possible. Otherwise, we're talking about sightseeing, an honorable enough activity to be sure -- or worse, pointless, self-indulgent dalliance, an exercise in clueless pretension. . There's a real drama inherent having a destination and a need to get to it entirely lacking in "luxury cruise packages" and "gourmet dinner trains." Real luxury travel still exists and for me its crossing the Atlantic on Air France La Premiere service and debarking in Paris after seven hours rather than shuttling aimlessly from one carribean tourist trap to another on some bloated, top-heavy cruise ship in company with 3,000 people who show up for dinner every night in baggies and flip-flops. It's like the difference between a trip to Vegas in a $200K RV and and a run down to Monaco in a Ferrari Superfast.
@@donaldfedosiuk1638 well said. These train trips (the Royal Scotsman in particular) are firmly in the realm of dalliance, they return from whence they came for example. They are also surely self indulgent, no comfort is spared. I think there is room expeditious luxury travel and indulgent dalliance tours. I enjoyed your thoughtful comments. Wishing you many swift and luxurious travels. Cheers
You should do a video on steam speed records
So what happened to the other 15 cars of that train , did they get scrapped?
A fair amount of them got picked up by NS and UP for their executive train fleets, a few also ended up with the Grand Canyon Railway. There's an unofficial list out there somewhere.
@@HighIron thank you. Great Too.👍
Do a video on the PRR red arrow train
The Rockies by Rail anyone?
Could they have modified the standsrd engines to fit more into the aesthetic of the train
Nice!
Thanks!
these kind of vids are super under appreciated imo, the videography, and the editing that goes into it, and the formatting with the almost perfect diction makes such a good presentation. Thank you for all the content y’all put out, seriously.
Glad you enjoy it!
Please do a story on Milwaukee road
loving these old school graphics...reminds me decades ago, getting trains to scroll across great Internet postcards I'd download, they'd been much fun, creative and silly...you could set the speed, timing and frequencies of the marquees...such a different era, I forget their names and stuff
Glad my reskins were of quality!
It wouldn't have been complete without it!
So a series of digital train pictures. okay.
It's okay, it turns to live action after 6:48. Having live action footage of these trains available for commercial usage would've been sweet.
Awesome
11:44 where is that clip with the General? I hadn’t seen anybody on UA-cam using the General locomotive in Trainz 2019 or later.
The route is a backdated stand-in of Haven Beach
@@HighIron ohhh…I see, thanks for the answer.
To answer the question. I think it can work if it is marketed correctly, the route is scenic, and someone who has very deep pockets.
❤❤❤❤
yay
Great video! Are the orient cars available?
That is explained in the credits.
What’s next
11:24. None of it will be in order though.
Good show
Thanks!
@@HighIron your welcome
What loco is that in 1:31
Also where did u find the American orient express cars
An S 3/6 from Bavaria, painted and lettered for SNCF. It's available from enginsmoteurspapytrainz.
The AOE cars were custom reskins, as made clear at 11:00.
second
tenth
Can you talk about the Butte special?