London to Fort William by Caledonian Sleeper: The train they call the Deerstalker

A journey from London to Fort William by Caledonian Sleeper, the Best Train in Britain and the train they call the 'Deerstalker'. Showing Caledonian Sleeper club room & caledonian double room in the new Mk5 sleepers, the club car, food & drink, breakfast, and the wonderful scenery on the West Highland Line, Britain's most scenic railway.
00:00 London Euston
00:16 First class lounge at London Euston
00:29 Boarding the Caledonian Sleeper to Fort William
01:10 tour of Club room
01:48 tour of Caledonian Double room
02:17 Departure from London
02:35 Food & drink in the Caledonian Sleeper club car
03:06 Off to bed...
03:25 Morning shower!
03:45 Loch Long
03:58 Breakfast in the Caledonian Sleeper club car
04:24 Crianlarich
05:05 Horseshoe Curve
05:51 Bridge of Orchy
06:41 Rannoch Moor
06:47 Deer!
07:44 Rannoch station
09:08 Corrour - Britain's most remote station
09:43 Corrour Summit - 1,350 feet above sea level, highest point on the West Highland Line
10:02 Loch Treig
10:47 Monessie Gorge
11:41 The Caledonian Sleeper arrives at Fort William

[peterscandlyn]

Always a great day when the Man in Seat 61 drops another video in. Thank you!

[SimonLiddo]

Life enhancing post. Thank you soooo much for sharing

[drdoolittle]

What fabulous memories, thank you for 'the show'!

[Trainz-on-rails]

Very nice train journey! The corridor in the sleeper car looked very narrow, but a very nice Train! Thank´s for sharing!

[rosemarywalker]

I'm happy to see you back on the rails. Fantastic video is even better to see all the best bits in daylight. Many thanks for the video. Here's to next time. 😊👍.

[AnnabelSmyth]

I was just thinking of a bucket list trip - perhaps next year: Sleeper to Fort William, The Jacobite to Mallaig; ferry to Skye, bus or something to Kyle of Localsh; train to Inverness and sleeper back to London!

[danielconrad]

Great new video of this train, the other direction. The old video is also one of the best. Thanks!

[jamesnbd]

Second only to the shower scene in Psycho 😂😂

[egpx]

I did the same journey just before lockdown. My conclusion was that it was a fantastic rail trip on a rather disappointing train. Despite being upgraded to the Caledonian Double, the new rolling stock isn't really up to the task. It's noisy, everything rattles and you can feel every bump in the track as the suspension fails smooth the ride out. The double bed was comfy enough, certainly better than the single bunks, I found it very difficult to sleep thanks to all the other stuff happening. Also, the shower dispensed water that was tepid at best. Having said that, there's nothing quite like waking up (after a couple of hours sleep at best) with Loch Lomond going by and then enjoying a breakfast on a snow covered Rannoch Moor. The West Highland Line is magnificent. I also got half my money back due to a 50 minute late arrival so I shouldn't really complain too much!

[antohosm]

Lovely video! Just watch the stunning scenery glide by 😀

[Andrewjg_]

I have been on the Caledonian Sleeper and it is very nice and the staff are so friendly and I like the Mk5 carriages that were built by CAF.

[diannewi]

Hmm, your drink - shaken, not stirred... WHAT an enormous improvement over my Ft. William to London trip in 2019, before the new carriages were in service. My outbound trip Edinburgh to Ft. William was daytime and what beautiful scenery.

[jolewis-brown]

Excellent video. Thank you. As ever, the comments are very amusing.

[amtrakharry]

I did the trip up to FT. William in early May and I had some worries about it as I had heard a lot of bad things about the train.
The train and crew were wonderful !!! The breakfast was excellent !!! The room was great !!! The shower was excellent !!! I'm 6'6" tall and 299 lbs. and fit in there !!! :):):)
The only thing I did wrong was having supper at Euston and not having on the train :(:(:(
I would do it again in a heart beat...
The weather sucked, but its Scotland... 😁😁😁

[teedoreM]

Very nice. It’s a pleasure to get a new video from you. I absolutely love your website – it is the single-most helpful site on the internet for travelling Europe and elsewhere, in particular for Americans such as me. My wish list for this video, you ask? Basic preview of the journey, including maps (Where is Euston Station? Where is Fort William?), overall distance to travel, published schedule, typical sleep and meal routines, maybe a layout of the carriages. Thank you for all your efforts.

[michaelbruchas]

Nice to see you posting again!
Beautiful and/or desolate scenery.
Am used to seeing train videos come in from the other direction at Corrour.

[travelandlivinginfrance]

I have done the London Glasgow sleeper. Always hoped we would get stuck behind a freight train so the compensation kicked in. Really enjoyable video

[titanbengal]

Absolutely lovely video.
Many thanks for sharing 👍

[thetallguy]

Beautiful journey, great video! I have never been to Fort William, but have done the other branches on the sleeper (before the new coaches!) Would love to do this trip one day!

[edmundcarew]

Excellent video, but when I did 'C" last year, a strike meant it terminated at Edinburgh so unable to proceed to Inverness and 'do' Strathspey Railway.

Table design in the club/dining car very good, facilitating The Man's filming. 8:50: terrific view.

The MK5 cars don't seem to ride as smoothly as the much older rollingstock used on GWR's 'Night Riviera'. They are also noisier. The Spanish CAF doesn't seem to have a great record in building its modern rollingstock. But after days of walking distances with a suitcase in tow, I was tired, so slept well.

Amazing in an underrated rail network, it took IIRC UK until 2019 to have sleeping compartments with included toilet and shower. In Oz, 'The Overland', 'Southern Aurora' and 'Brisbane Limited Express' plus 'Gold Coast Motorail Express' had same (for twinettes: roomettes only had a toilet and handbasin, with showers at end of the car) from varying dates as early as the 1950s. Probably USA beat that.

An Australian friend has just spent multiple nights in the accommodation at Corrour station. He said it was most enjoyable. Room rate seems to be c.GBP180/night.