Passenger types: Mainline, suburban, night sleeper

Freight types: None

Operators: 1

McKinley never sleeps, and nor can its operators. Even in 1956 when our journey together starts it’s a 24/7 operation.

That demands a huge quantity of rolling stock, and a lot of flexibility about how it’s used. The 24 hour cycle across the layout broadly splits into day and night operations, with the days taking the lion’s share of the clock. But when evening operations wind down, especially at the larger stations such as London King’s Park and Manchester Park Street, the night workings begin.

The final long-distance passenger services have departed, the suburban trains have ferried the last commuters home, and the daytime goods traffic has ceased. It’s time to clear the remaining rolling stock from the platforms and sidings so that night operations can begin. Portarlington will be that stock’s home for the next few hours, acting as a giant holding area until the next day’s services begin again.

This great migration frees those platforms for a wide variety of overnight traffic such as sleeper, parcels and newspaper services to take over while the cities sleep. And, come daybreak, the opposite happens; all that overnight stock leaves the stage for Portarlington as McKinley’s endless cycle begins all over again.