THE SLEEPER — a night train that never arrives

NORDLICHT OVERNIGHT RAILWAYS · SERVICE №7 · SOUTHBOUND, MOSTLY

About this line

The Sleeper departs every evening from a platform no timetable agrees on, and it has never once arrived. This is not a failure of the service. It is the service. Berths are made up with heavy wool blankets; the corridor smells of coal smoke and cold apples; the lamp above your pillow burns amber all night, because the dark outside deserves an audience.

Out the window the country repeats itself the way a lullaby does — plains, pines, lake, mountain, sea — each verse slightly re-painted. Passengers are advised to give up on sleep gracefully.

CALLING AT — ALL TIMES APPROXIMATE, ALL STOPS BRIEF

21:04VELDMARKWhere the plains give up their heat. Watch for the farmhouse with one lit window; the same dog has barked at this train for forty years.

23:47LUNEBYLamplight on the lake, and the moon laid across the water like a dropped ribbon. Doors open on the left. Nobody boards.

02:13ASHFALL JUNCTIONChange here for the high passes, if you can bear to. The tunnels beyond run long and black, and the window becomes a mirror with you in it.

04:58MIRRORWATERSea cliffs, gulls asleep on the wind. Arrive with the dawn — or don't arrive at all, which is the recommended option.

CARRIAGE NOTES

The lamp above berth 4C flickers when crossing water. This is normal, and some say lucky.
The dining car serves black coffee until the mountains, and warm milk after them.
Passengers wishing to be woken at dawn should tell the conductor, or the button below the window, whichever answers first.
Lost property is kept for one full journey. As the journey does not end, nothing is ever truly lost.