Murder on the Night Riviera

I'm sitting in the First Class Buffet on the Night Riviera, the sleeper train service that runs between London Paddington Station and Penzance. To say I'm excited is an understatement. I usually hate travelling, and prefer to take the quickest and shortest distance between two points. But there is something terribly romantic about a proper old-style train service. I guess I read Murder on the Orient Express at an impressionable age.

The Night Riviera is one of only three remaining sleeper services in the United Kingdom. I am travelling the full journey, taking me within 9 miles of Land's End, the most westerly point in Britain. The train departs Paddington at 23:45 and arrives in Penzance at 8:00. The trip can be done in about 2/3 that time on a fast train, but the night service is scheduled to allow people to sleep, and I hope I do! I'd describe my berth as "restrained luxury". It's clean, extremely functional, and surprisingly roomy through some master strokes of design. We've just arrived in Reading - the first of several stops - and I'm taking that as my queue to hit the sack.