Aah - now this is a lovely introduction for me to railforums, given that it reawakens so many happy memories of Scottish railrovers in the early 80's. I used the internal Scottish sleepers most nights of my weeks' travels (along with the Euston-Ft William service), & it was an invaluable way of getting around, not to mention very cheap as well. The Glasgow portion used to deposit a couple of coaches at Perth for Dundee/Aberdeen before attaching to the Edinburgh portion, & plodding onwards to Inverness - when the service was Mk 1/2 steam heat stock, two of the 47's that I vividly recall being in regular use were 47206/270 (ED). On the return journey, the two portions were split at Stirling, with the Edinburgh portion having quite a wait before venturing via Falkirk Grahamston to "Auld Reekie". Southbound from Inverness to Glasgow was invaluable in connecting for the "West Highlander" at 0600 ex Glasgow Queen St, whilst the northbound run gave excellent connections for the Kyle & Far North services (with attendant class 26 or 37 on steam heat stock), often after a great breakfast in the station refreshment rooms.
Alas, since privatisation, I have ony done the one trip onto the West Highland by scheduled Sleeper services to celebrate my 40th birthday a few years ago - still, it did provide for an absolutely barnstorming run over the WHL courtesy of 37411, after 37428 had "sat down" at Linlithgow, barely into the journey from Waverley.
Oh - such happy, carefree days that they were, indeed.........
Alas, since privatisation, I have ony done the one trip onto the West Highland by scheduled Sleeper services to celebrate my 40th birthday a few years ago - still, it did provide for an absolutely barnstorming run over the WHL courtesy of 37411, after 37428 had "sat down" at Linlithgow, barely into the journey from Waverley.
Oh - such happy, carefree days that they were, indeed.........