In the classic days of European train travel, it was possible to cross Europe from the Channel coast to Istanbul, and then make connections that would take the eager traveller on to Aleppo, Damascus or Baghdad. World War II disrupted much of this, but post-war the same arrangements were put in place, though the level of luxury declined as the well-heeled shifted to the new airline services. Still, the old Compagnie Internationale des Wagon Lits continued to ply its trade, and its blue sleeping and dining cars were still sought after by the knowledgeable traveller. In the 1960s, the travel writer George Behrend made an epic journey to Turkey via Wagons-Lits, and described it in his book Yatakli Vagon. But even then, the writing was on the wall, and increasingly the premium-named expresses had shifted downmarket, partially because of the need for post-war reconstruction, and partly because of a change in their target customers.

In the 1950s, Germany put out a call for Gästarbeiter - "guest workers" - to come and help with post-war reconstruction. Much of the 1950s "Wirstschaftswunder" - "economic miracle" - was down to this influx of labour, predominantly from the Balkan countries and Turkey. And their preferred mode of transport, both to and from Germany, was the long-distance express train. This magazine-format book describes many of those trains.

The names still sounded evocative - Tauern Express, Istanbul Express, Tauern-Orient, Acropolis; and the grand-daddy of then all, the Orient Express, though this was unrecognisable from its pre-war form. These, and more, ran mainly between principal German cities and the capitals of the Balkan states, often with many stops along the way. Frequently, they were formed of numerous portions, with coaches added or removed at various stages along the route. This meant that these trains were at their longest and heaviest over the Alpine passes, mostly over the Tauern or the Semmering in Austria. Formed out of coaches from many different countries - France, Belgium, Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey (and sometime reinforced with additional coaches from Austria), these trains made an often colourful spectacle amongst the Alpine scenery of forests, viaducts and tunnels. Many of the photographs in this book were taken in Bavaria or Austria.

The text, for the most part, gives a historical overview of the economics and politics behind these trains, and then continues with quite detailed descriptions of how these trains were made up - what types of coaches from which countries. This makes for quite tedious reading; but for the historian or modeller wishing to achieve complete accuracy in recreating these trains, that detail is quite important. The rest of us can get by with just dipping into the text and looking at the pictures. There are a couple of first-hand accounts of travelling and working on these trains; one, indeed, highlights the risks for the enthusiast of photographing locomotives in Yugoslavia, which goes to explain why most photographs in the book were taken in the West. The risks were high enough in Yugoslavia, though there are a number of pictures taken in that country; there are also a number taken in Greece, but way fewer taken in Bulgaria or Romania.

These trains may have sounded exotic and interesting to the traveller, but German timetables often commented that these trains were not guaranteed to be punctual and that "comfort cannot be guaranteed" - code for 'crowded'. Punctuality was an issue because of the need to attach and detach coaches along the route, plus the heavy loadings over the Alpine gradients. As for the crowding, I personally travelled on some of these services when travelling in Austria and Germany in the 1990s, albeit when these trains were on the cusp of change due to improved technology and changing demand. Although I now understand why some services I travelled on were so busy with family groups, I accepted the crowding as "one of those things" and part of the "romance" of international train travel. I also shared compartments with family groups undertaking these mammoth 35-hour-plus journeys, and never found myself inconvenienced.

But by then, things were changing. The growth of the budget airline, the increase in personal car ownership, and above all the changes to mass movement due to expanded EU membership and the Schengen arrangements meant that the need for these trains declined. And then the civil wars in Yugoslavia disrupted a lot of routing through Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. A greater emphasis by European rail administrations on switching to fixed train formations and multiple-unit operation meant that the day of the multi-part express, with through coaches to a range of destinations, was drawing to a close. What few trains remain have mainly lost their names and are integrated into the Europe-wide EuroCity network, and cater for a very different, mainly tourist, clientele.

But times are changing and international rail travel is promoting itself afresh as the green way to travel in a post-pandemic world. Perhaps we may see a return to really long-distance train travel in the future? ( )