The catastrophic derailment of the Russian Royal Train on 17 October 1888 killed 21 people, however Alexander III, along with his wife and children, survived. After this accident, a so-called Temporary Imperial Train was composed of several surviving cars of the wrecked train, with the addition of several converted passenger cars of the Nikolayevskaya Railway. The emperor also had at his disposal a standard gauge Imperial Train, used for traveling to Europe; this train set was purchased by the Russian Railway Ministry from Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée in the 1870s, and was deemed to be technologically obsolescent.