Posted by Alan Hakim on December 12, 2001 at 19:40:14 from 212.137.158.195:
In Reply to: Re: Agatha Christie and Archaeology posted by Jon on December 12, 2001 at 14:39:54:
Wagon-Lit
is French for sleeping car, but has a wider connotation than just that.
The Wagons-Lits company was founded in the 19th century, in imitation of the American Pullman Car Company, and went on to develop the most famous international express trains of Europe. The best known are the Blue Train and the Orient Express. Agatha Christie set murders on both of them.
Many of their finest sleeping cars were built in England, but were too big to fit on British railway tracks. So that's why the one at the British Museum hasn't been seen in England for over 70 years.
The Night Ferry car which Jon refers to is the last of a special small-size batch designed to run direct from London to Paris. Since this was before the Channel Tunnel, the cars were loaded on to a train ferry from Dover to Dunkirk in the middle of the night, without the passengers having to get out.
I was going to say without disturbing the passengers
, but it was in fact a very noisy process.