A TRAIN which featured on Channel 5's The World's Most Scenic Railway Journeys and was hailed by actor Bill Nighy for its luxurious style, will run from Chester next month.

The Northern Belle, once part of the iconic Orient Express group, will take passengers from Chester and Crewe to Cardiff and its historic castle on Wednesday, September 21. They will sip champagne and tuck into brunch on the way to Wales and then a slap-up five-course dinner with wine during the journey home in the evening.

Tickets don’t come cheap at £420 and people are expected to dress smartly to travel in the 1930s-style Pullman carriages.

British actor Bill Nighy previously told viewers that visitors were "lapping up all the luxury" as the decadent steam engine trip featured on the Channel 5 series last year.

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Yorkshire businessman David Pitts, who bought the train from Orient Express, said: "One of our carriages, which are all individually decorated with tapestries, paintings and mosaics, once formed part of the Queen’s Royal Train.

"And we like to think that the Northern Belle transports people back to the golden age of rail travel.

"To a time when nothing was too good for the pampered passengers."

A red carpet will be laid over the platform at Chester station when the train sets out at 8.50am on September 21.

It will then pick up more passengers from Crewe at 9.30 and is scheduled to arrive in Cardiff at 12.30.

The Northern Belle will be back in Chester just three days later on September 24 for a steam-hauled trip over the Settle-Carlisle line, a journey which will be repeated from Crewe on November 10.

The train will also travel to Bath from both Chester and Crewe on November 27 before a special slap-up Christmas Lunch trip in December.

For more details, see www.nothernbelle.co.uk.