The steamy, silver service vignette of Wes Anderson and Hitchcock locomotive reverie; of dolls house curtains framing a fleeting, hauntingly pretty landscape of snow-capped forests, frozen lakes or snowglobe villages; of Art Deco cabins configured with Debrett’s and dinner jackets in mind.
There is something endlessly glamorous about bells and whistles train journeys. They evoke a delicious sense of nostalgia and adventure that has inspired poets, writers and some of cinema’s most iconic scenes — from James Bond’s first encounter with Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, to Harry Potter’s first glimpse of Hogwarts as the Express chugs over the viaduct.
