In 1876, the Belgian engineer Georges Nagelmackers was seduced by the “rolling rooms” with which the American railways were already equipped. He decided to build a few three-compartment sleeping cars and attached them to the Berlin-Ostend, Paris-Cologne, and Paris-Vienna trains. The Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens was born. The CIWL’s night-blue trains travelled throughout Europe until the 1950s. The sleeping car on display at the Cité du Train-Patrimoine SNCF bears witness to the luxurious decoration of legendary trains such as the Train Bleu and the Orient-Express.