150 years old | The Caledonian Sleeper route diverted through the ECML at Peterborough

Caledonian Sleeper is the collective name for overnight sleeper train services between London and Scotland, in the United Kingdom. The precursor to the Caledonian Sleeper, known as the Anglo-Scot Sleeper was inaugurated in 1873.

Wikipedia says the train was inaugurated on 24th February, but Caledonian Sleeper in their official handle on LinkedIN state 2nd April as the anniversary.

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Train : The Highland Sleeper

Two trains are operated on six days each week (not Saturday night/Sunday morning). The Highland Sleeper has three portions that serve routes to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William. The Lowland Sleeper has two portions serving routes to Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central. The trains normally operate at a maximum speed of 80 mph (130 km/h), but are authorised to travel at 100 mph (160 km/h) where line speeds permit if the train has been delayed by more than 20 minutes.

Trains use the West Coast Main Line between Scotland and London, using London Euston as their terminus. Sunday services are sometimes diverted via the East Coast Main Line when the West Coast route is closed for engineering work. In these cases, they still use London Euston except when the station itself is closed, or there is no possible routing into the station during engineering works, in which case they use nearby London King's Cross instead.

The northbound Highland Sleeper leaves London Euston at 21:15 (20:59 on Sundays), calling at Watford Junction, Crewe and Preston to pick up passengers, and arrives at Edinburgh Waverley approximately six-and-a-half hours after leaving London. This leg of the journey is formed of 16 carriages and is hauled by an electric Class 92 locomotive.

At Edinburgh Waverley, the train is divided into three portions; these continue north of Edinburgh to Fort William, Aberdeen and Inverness as separate services. The electric locomotive is uncoupled and replaced by a Class 73/9 diesel locomotive for each of the three northbound sets.[65] The front portion of the train continues to Fort William, the middle portion is for Aberdeen, and the rear portion runs to Inverness. These services arrive at their respective destinations in the morning of the next day.

On the electrified routes between Glasgow/Edinburgh and London electric locomotives haul the trains. There were none of these included in the ScotRail franchises, instead they contracted Virgin Trains to provide Class 87s. In March 1998, these were replaced by English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) Class 90s.

On the unelectrified routes in Scotland, the trains were hauled by EWS Class 37s to Fort William and 47s to Aberdeen and Inverness until June 2001 when Class 67s began to replace the Class 47. The Class 67 units were also used on the Fort William route from June 2006. Four locomotives were fitted with cast iron brakes and restricted to 80 mph (130 km/h) for this additional service.