A 1950s poster. Sleeper trains, says Clive Anderson, can be like “being in a friendly B&B on wheels”

One of my earliest memories is of travelling from London to Scotland on the sleeper. Though actually it is so long ago now, and lodged so deep in my subconscious, I sometimes wonder if I just dreamt it. We often went to Scotland when I was a child—to visit my grandparents and to go on holiday—but almost always by car. But I think I remember the one trip by train. But real or imagined, this overnight rail journey obviously made an impression on me. And the Caledonian Sleeper remains a favourite with me to this day.

As it happens, I have slept on many trains around the world. I don’t mean just nodding off over a book or long enough to miss a station. I mean bedding down for the night on