(I) In the early 1880s, George Nagelmackers, a young Belgian railway enthusiast, following the example of George Mortimer Pullman in Britain, began building luxury railway carriages for travel across continental Europe. (II) In 1881, Nagelmackers introduced the first restaurant car aboard a continental train. (Ill) On October 4, 1883, the first Orient-Express train service was inaugurated. (IV) The legendary train was at its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s when royalty, celebrities, courtesans and spies intermingled as they travelled across Europe, enjoying the train service's elaborate meals and fine wines. (V) The most famous of them was Agatha Christie's novel Murder on the Orient Express, in which her detective Hercule Poirot investigated the murder of a passenger.