Sleeper Journeys

Travelling on an overnight sleeper train has always been, for me, one of the great adventures of life. My first such journeys were with East African Railways, on their overnight service between Mombasa and Nairobi, which left late afternoon and arrived at its destination in time for breakfast. These trains were pulled by the magnificent Garrett locomotives, one of the most powerful steam engines of their time.

Later, I travelled for three days and two nights from Cape Town to Bulawayo when I went to Southern Rhodesia in 1963, sharing a cabin with a clergyman who turned out to be the very best of amusing company. The journey can still be done today on what is known as the Blue Train, though now it stops at Pretoria.

I first travelled on what is now known as the Caledonian Sleeper on a visit to Scotland with my Aunt Noel and my cousins and their friends in 1962, on a holiday which we spent on the shores of Loch Kishorn. Since then I have lost count of the number of times we have travelled between Fort William and Euston on the sleeper service when we lived on Ardnamurchan, and more recently between Inverness and London. These journeys were in the same carriages as when I first travelled this way, hauled by somewhat ancient diesel engines.

Sleeper trains really come into their own on epic continental journeys. This is ViaRail's The Canadian, which travels between Toronto and Vancouver. We've never done that journey in one go - it takes four days and three nights - but we've covered the distance in several journeys over the years. I think it's probably the most comfortable of the sleeper services, travelling through magnificent country, the Rockies being the most spectacular section.

All this came to mind because we hope this summer to travel on the new Caledonian Sleeper, in which the Scottish Government has recently invested £100 million in new rolling stock. It'll be interesting to see how it compares with the earlier journeys.