In January 1929, the Orient Express was on the last leg of its 2000 mile journey from Paris to Istanbul. It had been snowing for most of the way, and as the train crossed the border from Bulgaria into Turkey, the train was forced to slow to a crawl, before coming to a compete halt, fifty miles from its destination. There were only twenty passengers aboard the Orient Express, but for those marooned people, their plight had become serious.