Is there anything more glamorous than an overnight train? Even when you’re climbing aboard wearing your husband’s raincoat, carrying an oat-encrusted car seat, with a six-month-old in a sling and an apple core fermenting gently and secretly in the side pocket of your rucksack?

Not that I know of. I love travelling by train – even now, when it’s as comprehensively bad as British rail privatisation has made it for, well, just about everyone save a few shareholders and the CEO of Pumpkin Cafe.........

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