Adlington
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- Joined
- 3 Oct 2016
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There aren't many books on sleeping cars, so it's interesting to note the recently published Night Trains: The Rise and Fall of the Sleeper. Here are excerpts from a review in the Economist:
May be some forum members will read the book and publish their thoughts here. Or may be they will do only the latter, without the former....Sleeper trains occupy a romantic corner of any travellers soul. In some parts of the world, the nostalgia lives on. The Caledonian Sleeper, complete with smartly dressed waiters, neeps and tatties and a selection of whiskies, is the best way to travel between London and Scotland. Elsewhere, however, sleepers are on their last legs. Flights across Europe have become so cheap that fewer and fewer travellers bother with the wagon-lit. Sensing that the end is nigh, Andrew Martin, a British novelist, has written an ode to the sleeper.
These stories make clear that the golden age of the sleeper train is long past. How different things were in the 19th century, when a passenger on the Orient Express could dine on gigot de mouton à la Bretonne, épinards au sucre and champagne aplenty.
[T]he real question that the uninitiated most often ask sleeper fanatics is: Do you sleep? After a read of Mr Martins book, the answer would seem to be a resounding no: clanking and shunting wake him up time and again. Still, it is hard not to be won over by his enthusiasm. Catch the sleeper train, before its too late.