British Belmond carriages travelling through West Sussex countryside today

The train is the sister train to the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and leaves Eastbourne Railway Station for a leisurely route to Gatwick and back tonight.

The trip is part of a two day event to raise money for St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Eastbourne.

Hundreds of people are expected to line the route.

The train departs Eastbourne at 6.36pm and will arrive back at 10.36pm.

The event has been a sell out with people buying tickets for a three and a half hour train journey aboard the train.

The train will travel via Bexhill, Wadhurst, Tonbridge, Godstone, Earleswood and Gatwick and back to Eastbourne.

Honouring George Mortimer Pullman, the father of luxury train travel, the Pullman carriages are the height of train luxury. Each is individually named with a unique story to tell.

Some have been used extensively by the British royal family. Others have carried luminaries including President de Gaulle and Nikita Khrushchev. Two were part of Winston Churchill’s funeral train.

The oldest carriage, Ibis, dates back to 1925. Others, like Audrey and Vera, survived bomb damage during air-raids over London’s Victoria Station in 1940.

Since making its first trip in 1982, the splendidly refurbished Belmond British Pullman luxury train has delighted passengers on excursions and weekend breaks.

It also carries passengers on the London/Folkestone section of the legendary journey aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express that continues via Paris to continental destinations, including Venice, Prague and Istanbul.

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