My guess for "breakfast trays" would akin to what you get now on Caledonian Sleeper and Nightjet, for example, namely a selection of hot or cold breakfast items brought to you on a tray by the attendant. The Night Ferry, with restaurant cars both ends, did not have that as routine, but it could be provided for passengers who required it due to mobility issues or paid the tip for it.
I suspect in that era the 'breakfast tray' would be cold, having been brought onto the train at an intermediate station, perhaps Preston or Crewe (Southbound) or Carlisle (northbound) - all of these stations had all night buffets - with orders having been phoned ahead and then distributed by the sleeping car attendants ahead of arrival in London or Glasgow (Inverness and Aberdeen sleepers tended to breakfast served in a restaurant car attached earlier in the morning, e.g. Perth. as mentioned, for Inverness, and at Edinburgh for Aberdeen. In Mk1 sleepers the attendants had the facility to provide hot drinks but no means of providing and hot food.
Did they have plug sockets for electric shavers as well?
Only a hot water geyser operated by bottled gas - so a constant supply of boiling water, but absolutely nothing else. I think your guess would be reasonably close to the mark, apart from the toast (no means of heating) so maybe bread or rolls, and an individual butter pack.
Sorry, that I don't recall, and never having had an electric razor I would not have missed such a socket if it wasn't there.
Makes perfect sense. My LMR timetable (only London to Carlisle shown in the main part) has that train as arriving at Carlisle at 05.17, so lots of time to load the trays. Somewhere there might even be a photograph of a breakfast tray !
Update: A photo in the book 'Anglos Scottish Sleepers' by David Meara has a photo (page 39) from a BR publicity leaflet (quoting 1959 berth prices) detailing the interior features of a Mk1 sleeping compartment shows 'H' 'electric shaver point', presumably fed from the lighting circuits. When I read this book I found it sadly lacking in detail but it has come up trumps in this respect.
Possibly, but I suspect milk would be provided for tea and, well, milk is milk.
A reason for doing it this way is that the breakfast tray, being dry, can be easily stored and handed out without risk of spillage. The small pot and the milk for the tea are on the same small tray, so all the careful handling is concentrated in one place. Additionally, I don’t think that the compartments had fixed full tables, just small shelves. There was room to put your tea-cup, teapot and milk jug on the side, but not to handle a bowl of cereal and enough milk to put on it.
When I used sleepers quite a few times 78-79 it a was Schweppes still water. Looked like Schweppes Sodawater but the label was white if I recall.
Little china jugs - those “for one” had no handles; those for two did. Still have one of the larger ones, bought at Haymarket open day in 1985 as “ex-sleeper”
Before that it was a decanter of tap water.
Yes, I remember that and I recall there was a small fridge in the attendants compartment to keep the milk and butter chilled.
I learnt that the hard way in Russia, I ended up with diarrhea after drinking tap water in my hotel room because it was so hot everywhere!
Still available & now brewed (since 2017) by Marston's.
The Royal Highlander, at least northbound, was the last "dinner bed & breakfast" train in Britain, into the 1970s. There was a vacuum-braked restaurant car, well after air brake became normal on the WCML, from Euston, which was detached at Crewe, and then a separate Scottish Region internal restaurant car was attached at Perth in the morning. This latter must have been a rather challenging duty, the Inverness-based car and crew came southbound for the Highlander dinner service, detached at Perth, and then had many hours to wait before at about 5am they got going again for the northbound breakfast run.
In 1973 2000 Kings Cross to Aberdeen and Fort William still had RB and RU to York and RB and BSO from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, plus RB from Glasgow to Fort William.
Mk I sleepers definitely had shaver points.
Something, perhaps, like this bottle of "Drinking water"? No idea how long it's been knocking around the house, or why...
