RED carpets will be laid across the platform at Leicester station later this month to welcome the arrival of a BODYSNATCHER.
But it’s nothing to do with the living dead … just a vintage diesel engine that will be hauling the luxury Northern Belle train.
The huge Class 57 locomotives were nicknamed Bodysnatchers or Zombies by rail enthusiasts during the last century.
And this one will be hauling the 1930s Pullman-style Northern Belle on a slap-up trip to Llandudno and Conwy Castle in Wales.
The train, once part of the iconic Orient Express group, was described by actor Bill Nighy as “the Grand Duchess of luxury travel”.
He said passengers had been “lapping up the luxury” when it featured on Channel 5’s World’s Greatest Railway Journeys programme last year.
Each of the seven gleaming umber and cream-painted carriages is individually hand-decorated with murals, tapestries and mosaics.
One once even used to make up part of the Queen’s Royal Train.
Yorkshire businessman David Pitts, who owns the Northern Belle, boasts: “Nothing is too good for our passengers. We like to pamper them from the moment they step on board.”
Tickets for the day out from Leicester on Friday July 29 don’t come cheap at £430 each.
But for that passengers are welcomed with champagne before tucking into a slap-up three-course brunch on the way to Wales.
Then there is another champagne reception in the evening after which a five-course dinner with wine is served during the journey home.
The train will return to the city in November for a trip to Bath. For more details see www.northernbelle.co.uk