he inaugural Kings Cross to Middlesbrough service, the first direct service from the capital to the Teesside city since 1990. The first southbound service departed with much fanfare, so I was intrigued to see if there were any events planned at Kings Cross for the return.

Sunday 12th December 2021, as usual for the second Sunday in December, was timetable change day on Britain’s railways. Along with the second Sunday in May, this is the time that generally any major changes to services are introduced and if it was to fall around that time anyway, any new stations would open. As such, Soham, Britain’s newest station (at the time of writing) was scheduled to open on the 12th December.

After a couple of nights in Inverness and a short adventure to Perth, we were back at Inverness station with plenty of time until the final leg of our mini break, the Caledonian Sleeper back to London.

One of Britain’s most famous railway vehicles, the Class 43 HST power cars and accompanying InterCity 125 sped across the length and breadth of the country for years carrying passengers between the UK’s major cities and along the key routes of the East Coast Mainline, Great Western Mainline, Midland Mainline and others. In recent years the 45-year-old, full length HST sets have been retired from service, replaced by modern units. However, some power cars, and shortened sets, have found a new home on inter-city services north of the border.

The last time I travelled onboard the Caledonian Sleeper was in October 2020 in that weird period between lockdowns when the Government were encouraging people to do things but restrictions were still in place and it all felt a bit… well, weird… This journey I was travelling on the same route as my maiden sleeper voyage, from London Euston to the capital of the Highlands, Inverness.

With a winter chill in the air, but a glorious sunrise just beginning, I arrived at Peterborough station bright and early ready for another adventure. My ultimate destination was the NRM’s Locomotion in Shildon (although that failed miserably), however the first leg, as far as Darlington, was with LNER in first-class. It also turns out that this is the 150th blog of Flights and Times and so I feel that a first-class journey was appropriate.