Gregory Marshall, a US businessman, created a bizarre train museum in Burgundy, France, where visitors will now get a chance to spend a night on the fabled Orient Express.
The crown jewel of Marshall’s expanding collection of steam trains is a locomotive, two carriages, and two carriages from the line built in 1883 to transport the affluent from Paris to Constantinople, as Istanbul was then known. Marshall plans to open the hotel-museum next year.
When the service was reduced, The Orient Express ceased operating in Istanbul in 1977, and it made its final trip in December 2009.
The sumptuous restaurant car aboard Marshall’s Orient Express carriages, which date from 1948, includes a cylinder phonograph among its vintage attractions.
Marshall’s “dream train” idea is centred around a defunct railroad station that is tucked away in the 600-person town of Dracy-Saint-Loup amid century-old trees and aspens.
The 1882-built station would be fantastic for youngsters after he revives it, said the white-haired Marshall, who appears much younger than his 71 years.
Marshall, a former US Marine, said, “I’ve liked trains since I was a youngster. I recall the first toy train set my dad got me when I was five or six years old.
Marshall remarked, “Almost everyone my age, older, or a little younger, has memories of steam engines.
However, visitors are unable to board the trains and truly experience them or go on an adventure like ordinary museums.
A Cockerill from Belgium was the final locomotive to arrive at the location, and it was placed next to a large steam engine from 1916.
Gregory Godessart, the French manager of Marshall, believes that visitors shouldn’t anticipate taking advantage of all the contemporary conveniences, but rather, “to have fun spending the night in the Orient Express.”
Marshall hopes to launch one of the waggons in the spring of 2018 and one of them is currently almost ready to accept paying customers.
At the Dracy-Saint-Loup station, which is on a now-defunct line that meanders through Burgundy’s Morvan highlands and has not seen a passenger since 2011, Marshall proposes a “double-decker” carriage that will be his primary apartment for his personal sleeping comfort.
In September 2016, Marshall, who amassed wealth from certain telecoms patents, acquired the decaying structure from SNCF, the French public train corporation.
He is aware that his “dream train” idea will cost more than his $230,000 ($200,000) budget.
He doesn’t mind, though.
Heritage
Marshall, who used to be involved with American historical organisations, hopes that France would classify his station as a historic site and recognise the station’s vintage rolling equipment.
Steam trains are just one aspect of Marshall.
He enjoys flying and has a six-seater Piper Lance that is kept at the airfield in the neighbouring Burgundy metropolis of Dijon.
He resided in Boston, Hawaii, and California, where he served in the renowned California Highway Patrol, until relocating to France in 2003.
Marshall, a widower and former divorcee, remarked, “Really intriguing, very entertaining, when you’re young, you chase bad guys and arrest them, it’s an adventure.
If I keep doing the same thing for too long, I’m not satisfied, he declared.
Marshall has many of Citroen’s iconic Deux Chevaux (2CV) automobiles, including one that he customised to resemble a US army vehicle from World War II.
He plans to convey Charles Lindbergh’s final residence, which he destroyed years ago in order to preserve it, to France one day. Charles Lindbergh was a pioneering aviator who made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927.
Residents of Dracy-Saint-Loup are enthusiastic about Marshall’s idea.
According to Godessart, the location was visited by “a tiny old lady, 95 years old, who used to travel the train with her grandmother.”
The ancient lines are still being consumed by weeds, and the creaky station platform sags in certain areas as the “dream train” project slowly takes shape.
Marshall stated, “There’s still a lot of work to be done.