Starlight Specials

In the 1950s and 1960s these cheap return excursion trains ran overnight between London and both Glasgow and Edinburgh, departing on Friday evenings and then returning on Saturday evenings a week or a fortnight later. The main purpose of these nocturnal trains was to compete with the Anglo-Scottish services being offered by the private coach companies in the 1950s and 1960s. Not only were they successful in doing this, they also generated long-distance and profitable traffic for British Railways.

Dave Peel looks at this lesser-known aspect of Britain’s railway history, a popular service that spanned ten years of service at the twilight of steam. He examines their rise and their fall, their successes and failures.