Guy,

You were unlucky. We had a pleasant party group in the diner until very late. And the conductor unlocked an old parcels van for the benefit of us smokers who were finding the time between stops a bit long. So I remember the trip very fondly.

But right off thread, if you want a long tedious trip, try the Istanbul to Bucharest sometime. It's nominally about 20 hours but usually runs a minimum of 4 hours late, has NO diner/restaurant car and has an early morning border stop where everyone has to vacate the train & queue up for visa check. On the night I did it, we waited for 30 minutes before an official arrived to unlock the office & start work!!! We eventually arrived at Bucharest so late that we had missed both connecting trains to Budapest & had to find a hotel for the night. I wrote a grumpy email to Mark Smith at Seat61 and you'll see he now advises you'll need an overnight in Bucharest.
Happy memories.
Dave