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*  The world’s first true dining car was pioneered in the United States by George Mortimer Pullman in 1868. It was named Delmonico after the famous New York restaurant. *  The first British restaurant car ran on 1 November 1879 when a Pullman car named Prince of Wales was attached to a service from Leeds […]

It is one of the last civilised experiences left in the modern world of travel. The soothing clink of cutlery on china, the starched tablecloths, a smartly uniformed steward at your elbow serving dinner in the restaurant car as the scenery of our green and pleasant land flashes by through the window. For more than […]

Normally, you might have expected a bit of anxiety among the passengers when smoke started to waft through a packed carriage on the 19.00 East Coast service from King’s Cross to Edinburgh. But when it happened last Friday, it was quite the opposite. The aroma, emanating from the galley in coach No. 11998  was a […]

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It was one of the most delicious yet poignant meals I have ever enjoyed aboard a railway train. The Smoked Haddock Arnold Bennett Crepe was delicious, and the rib-eye steak grilled to a tee. Solicitous stewards served rhubarb and ginger pavlova as the eastern counties flashed past the window in the setting sun But when […]

The ancient wooden signal clatters down and there’s a friendly wave from the guard. It’s time to climb aboard the little branch line train, pottering along an idyllic Cornish valley to a perfect seaside fishing village. Here, through the train window, England’s green and pleasant land can be viewed in all her springtime finery. The […]

What’s the difference between a twitcher and a gricer? Answer: not much. One spots birds and the other spots trains. Unfortunately there’s not an imminent prospect of sighting either from where I’m sitting on this gorgeous spring afternoon amid the May blossom on the platform at Salhouse station on the remote Bittern Line in North […]

1: The prettiest. Middlesbrough to Whitby. Meandering for 36 miles through mellow stone-built villages along the lovely Esk Valley to the salty sea air of the ancient fishing town of Whitby, this is the best of rural England in all her finery. 2: The most romantic. The “Deerstalker Express” from Euston to Fort William and […]