Other cars that required more creative restoration still sport period replicas like the pull-down sinks and fans instead of air conditioning in the hottest weeks of summer.

In January 1929, the train became snowbound for a week with 20 passengers aboard on the Paris-Istanbul run. The crew was able to keep passengers from freezing by digging their way into the forest nearby and collecting wood to burn in the boilers.

Nowadays, it's much easier to keep the tracks clear even in the worst winters, but the boilers work fine and perpetuate the train's antique charm without compromising comfort.

Murder on the Orient Express has been dramatized for the big screen and television, but the train itself has never enjoyed a starring role.

Sidney Lumet's 1974 classic film and other adaptations were made after the Orient Express' post-war demise but before its 1980s resurrection. So all shooting was done at real train stations and studio movie sets.

Fox has announced plans to remake the movie with director Ridley Scott. Janssens says VSOE executives would be thrilled if some of the scenes could be shot on the actual train.

David Suchet, who was Poirot in the BBC's television adaptations for 25 years and appeared in every Poirot story Christie published, traveled on the train to make a 2010 PBS documentary.

"When David stepped out onto the platform in Prague－even without the Poirot mustache－people just went crazy," says Janssens.

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