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Shortest 'Overnight' Sleeping Car journeys

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route101

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It isn't. Edinburgh to Euston is shorter for a start, and of course the Night Riviera is also much shorter, especially if you get on at Exeter.
I haven't done them two journeys by sleeper so aren't my shortest.
 
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jamesontheroad

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Note I have changed the title to Shortest 'Overnight' Sleeping Car journeys

Daytime use of a Sleeping Car may of course continue to be posted, I am finding these interesting and in some cases amusing, but the original concept was for passengers who had booked and travelled on a sleeper (or couchette) for a relatively short journey. 'Booking' may of course include making payment to the attendant on boarding the train and finding accommodation to be available (as was the case on my Halmstad to Oslo example, otherwise I would have been in the seats on this train.

Definition of overnight? I would suggest departure no later than 02.00 and arrival no earlier than 02.00, but please offer an alternative definition if it worked for your journey.

Stockholm-Malmö is the shortest end-to-end night train by distance in Sweden: 597km (370 miles), taking about seven hours. I think Stockholm-Nässjö is the shortest distance you can book in a couchette or sleeping compartment (329km / 3.5hrs). It may be possible to book compartments for shorter distances elsewhere in Sweden...
 

peteb

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In the early 80s a group of us from RHC railway club took a BR merrymaker excursion from Egham to the Nene Valley Railway. On arrival at Wansford we were transported back along the length of the line steam-hauled in continental wagons-lits carriages. A fantastic experience, 2/3 in each compartment, I recall the lovely timber interiors, and we did drop the beds down, with permission, just to see how they were configured. So about 20 miles round trip!

On a mid-80s journey by SNCF, couchette from Aix les Bains to St Jean de Luz via Nimes, Toulouse, etc, we were amused that the train was basicly a long distance stopper and some passengers got on for very short point to point journeys eg: Nimes to Beziers, yet still got into the couchette for barely an hour's nap, before "pardon", waking us all up getting off!
 
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Cheshire Scot

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In the early 80s a group of us from RHC railway club took a BR merrymaker excursion from Egham to the Nene Valley Railway. On arrival at Wansford we were transported back along the length of the line steam-hauled in continental wagons-lits carriages. A fantastic experience, 2/3 in each compartment, I recall the lovely timber interiors, and we did drop the beds down, with permission, just to see how they were configured. So about 20 miles round trip!
Excellent!
 

CW2

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I once overdossed on an overnight from Euston (in the seats). I was aiming for Crewe and woke up at Wigan. The only way south ot stupid o'clock on a Sunday morning was when a sleepers only southbound service called at Wigan to set down newspapers. I persuaded a sleeping car attendant to let me on board, so I had a cabin from Wigan to Crewe. Unfortunately at Crewe the train was stopped middle road for a loco change, rather than in a platform as I had anticipated. So I had to bale out middle road under cover of darkness. This all took place in the early 1980s, when Mk 1 sleepers without central door locking were the norm.

In Poland in the early 1980s some branch lines were still steam worked, and the coaching stock sometimes included a redundant couchette coach. So I've certainly tottered up and down a few Polish branch lines fast asleep in a couchette coach.
 
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