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he first court trains were still assembled from carriages
of different styles and furnishings; finally, the technical
craftsmanship of the Franz Ringhoffer Imperial-Royal
Carriage and Tender Factory in Smichov near Prague was used
for the creation of a uniform court train, to be built on behalf of
the Austrian State Railroads (
Österreichische Staatsbahnen
) for
the journeys of the monarch. The total cost came to 210,353
florins (
Gulden
), the equivalent of about 40 million Euros today.
The building order of 1890 was granted strictly according to the
decisions of the executive board and confirmed by all Austrian
railroad administrations.
In addition to the few extraordinary and unique imperial and royal
court trains and regular railroad traffic for the people, there were,
from the very beginning, so-called "comfort trains" that had been
especially developed in England. When Mortimer Pullman presented
his luxurious sleeping and dining cars in 1864, they were found to
be almost as elegant as the trains for the aristocracy – and riding on
these luxurious railroads became a travel enjoyment for the elegant,
the rich, and the beautiful. In Europe, one traveled from England
and France, from Berlin and Vienna, to Russia and China, and in
America, legendary railroad lines were laid across its giant and
hitherto largely undeveloped country.
The Austrian
Court Salon Train
Full view of the Austrian Court Train, built in 1891
by the Franz Ringhoffer Company of Prague
(DW)
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