Train travel is a lost art in the United States, a fact not lost on film director Wes Anderson, who revels in using train travel in his films.

Now he's taken his passion to a country that understands it: to England, where a company has built a Wes Anderson-inspired train carriage complete with all the rich details one expects from his movies.

Travelers with cash to burn can book a ticket on the Cygnus train carriage-built by Belmond, it will service cities all over the UK with its pastel-pink ceiling, richly embroidered green seats, and Art Deco wooden walls and window frames inspired by the train coaches Anderson designed for his films Darjeeling Limited, and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

"I have often had the chance to invent train compartments and carriages in my movies," Wes tells Belmond.

"So I was very eager to make something new while also participating in the process of preservation which accompanies all the classic Belmond train projects. They are keeping something special alive. An endangered species of travel which is nevertheless very suited to our time."

The carriage is named after the mythical Greek god of balance, as well as an older luxury train carriage maintained by British Pullman trains in the middle 20th century.

It hosted royalty and dignitaries, and survived World War II bombing raids.

Cygnus now travels this way and that across the countryside, and serves a five-course English menu that's ever changing, complete with real crockery, cheeses, afternoon teas, and champagne-poured from a bottle made of glass into a glass made of glass, just as it would have been in the Golden Age of Travel.

A table in the main carriage is not for a last minute getaway, as it runs $545 per person, while one of the private coupés, a small private dining room for four, will go for $2,455 per coupé.

"Wes is an expert in rendering fantasy worlds that are a little more beautiful and satisfying than the ones we live in," Belmond said.

With relentless details to feast upon and carefully calibrated colour palettes to pore over, his films aren't just thrilling stories: they're works of art.

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