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  1. #1
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    Orient Express : Private collectors buy rare coaches

    Private collectors buy rare coaches
    Jun 5, 2010


    French auctioneers Philippe (left) and Aymeric Rouillac pose in front a sleeping-car built in 1949, which was once part of the famous Orient-Express train.
    PHOTO: AFP

    CHEVERNY (France) - PRIVATE collectors paid half a million euros for three coaches from the legendary Orient Express train and another luxury wagon on Saturday, auctioneers in France's Loire valley said.

    Individuals bought separately the four coaches for a total of 500,000 euros (S$846,257), five times what seller Jacques Guyot was seeking to pay for repairs to his chateau's roof.

    On sale in the rare auction - the first for prestige railway items since 1977 - were two restaurant cars with 56 places and 14 tables built in 1928 and a sleeping car with 11 compartments built in 1949. All had been part of the Orient Express train travelling from Paris to Istanbul.

    A private collector from Switzerland bought one of the restaurant cars for 205,000 euros while a renovator from the Alsace region picked up the less well-preserved second dining car for 60,000 euros. The sleeping car went for 50,000 euros.

    Guyot also sold for 185,000 euros a rare wagon of 1909 that used to transport Britons from Calais in north France to the Cote d'Azur in the south.

    Auctioneer Aymeric Rouillac said he did not expect such vehicles to come on the market again. Only 40 coaches from the Orient Express exist today, explaining the strong interest the auction received from individuals and collectors' associations, he said.

    straitstimes.com

  2. #2
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    BugginOut's Avatar
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    Nice to see that SOME people aren't affected by the global economic crisis.

  3. #3
    Excitable Boy
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    I know a couple guys that are seriously into model rail-roading in the States (entire basements covered with tracks, trains, and painstakingly crafted scenery)- they spend thousands of dollars on their passion- these are just guys with bigger wallets doing the same thing- there's something about trains that just grabs some people.
    There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
    HST

  4. #4
    Philippine Expat
    Davis Knowlton's Avatar
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    The Orient Express was pretty cool. Just think of all the movies those cars have appeared in. I was going to buy one, but just didn't have a place to put it.

  5. #5
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    Trains can be an aphrodisiac.

    One of my schoolmates was one of the shyest guys I ever met, very quiet and yet he became a tiger of untamed passions on a train departing from Munchen, engaging in carnal lust in the carriage passageway.

    He ended up marrying an accountant though.
    Kindness is spaying and neutering one's companion animals.

  6. #6
    Philippine Expat
    Davis Knowlton's Avatar
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    Hope it was good for you both.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton View Post
    Hope it was good for you both.
    Egads. My friend was frisky with his German female friend.
    I wasn't wealthy enough to go to backpacking around Europe on summer break - I had to work to pay for uni.

  8. #8
    I am in Jail

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    That is too funny Zyg.
    Yes I love trains, even the Thai sleepers with the warm terry blankets and soft pillows. Going to the dining car to meet intrepid travellers and drink beer and getting locked out of our compartments coz we stayed out too late.
    I so wanted to do the Orient Express; dunno why I didn't.

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