In 1990, the 31-car fleet was purchased by the British luxury travel company, Orient-Express Trains & Cruises (an off-shoot of Orient-Express Hotels) and taken to A & G Price, of Thames, for regauging from New Zealand's gauge to gauge for Thai and Malaysian railway lines. 24 cars (19 sleepers, three buffet cars and two power vans) went to Singapore where an extensive internal rebuild and fit-out, as well as exterior painting and badging, was undertaken by the new owners at their (then) newly-constructed maintenance depot on KTMB land in Singapore's Keppel Road rail yards. A 25th car also went to Singapore, and was stored unrefurbished for some years, but was scrapped when E&O moved its engineering workshop from Singapore to Johor. Since then the refurbished consist has operated a regular 5-star luxury cruise-train service between Singapore (now the Woodlands customs terminal on the island's northern coast) and Bangkok as the "Eastern & Oriental" Express.