3 July 2008
The Great Railway Bazaar
Posted by Miroslav under: Books; Train .
Finished reading another great book last Friday called “The Great Railway Bazaar” (wikipedia) by Paul Theroux (wikipedia).
The Orient Express, The Khyber Pass Local, The Frontier Mail, The Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, The Maridalay Express, The Ozora Limited - -a Grand Tour by train, a journey from London to Tokyo and back with as many mishaps as detours. Paul Theroux, novelist and railway lover, set out one day from Victoria Station, bent on boarding every eastbound train that chugged into sight, eventually returning from Japan on the Trans-Siberian Express.
It was written in 1975 and coves a lot of trains that have been running since the 30’s and 40’s. A lot has changed since then 1975, but its still a great read :)
2 Comments so far...
Jeff Paulett Says:
3 July 2008 at 5:43 pm.
It’s great to hear about people with such a passion for these great trains - long may they continue to cross the continents with such style and elegance.
Miroslav Says:
4 July 2008 at 1:03 pm.
Spot on Jeff…planes are OK but are also a necessity for traveling across oceans now that most of the great sea journeys have gone…and hopefully grand train journeys won’t follow the same pattern.
I was actually quite interested to notice that in Australia the Great Southern Rail organisation (that runs The Ghan, Indian Pacific and The Overland trains is starting up a service called The Southern Spirit which is going to provide “lavish rail cruises” :)
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