All aboard for a slap-up seven course Christmas lunch on Britain’s most luxurious train leaving

Fancy sipping champagne and tucking into a slap-up seven-course Christmas lunch with all the trimmings while bowling along at 70mph aboard Britain’s most luxurious train?
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Well, that’s what’s on offer when the 1930s Pullman-style Northern Belle Pullman train, once part of the iconic Orient Express group, sets out from Doncaster next month.

Passengers are paying £340 each to board over a red carpet laid on the station platform on Tuesday, December 20, before a meandering five-hour trip through the wintry Yorkshire countryside.

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There are even musicians and an on-board conjuror to add a bit more festive magic to the trip.

All aboardAll aboard
All aboard

Yorkshire businessman David Pitts, who owns the train, said: “You’d be Christmas crackers to miss this festive feast all washed down with the finest wine and champagne.”

Actor Bill Nighy described the Northern Belle as the “Grand Dame of luxury travel” when it featured on Channel 5’s “The World’s Most Scenic Railways” programme last year.

And readers of prestigious Condé Nast magazine recently voted it Britain’s best and ninth in the world, beating famous trains lime the Rocky Mountaineer and the Maharajah’s Express.

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The magazine said: “It’s all about the food – and the scenery, but mostly about the food – on this lovingly-restored train which zig-zags its way across the countryside.

A Christmas carriageA Christmas carriage
A Christmas carriage

“The meal services are exquisite, offering fine dining crafted mostly from UK suppliers so you can enjoy classic British fare as the heaths, meadows and dales roll on by.”

But passengers are being warned they’d better look smart if they want to catch the train – jeans and trainers are banned!

The Northern Belle sets out from York at 11.30am before picking up passengers at Doncaster at 12.20 and then Sheffield at 1pm.

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The train will be back in Doncaster again next May for a trip to Edinburgh, with the chance to visit the former Royal Yacht Britannia which is moored at nearby Leith, and then to Winchester in July.

For more details, see www.northernbelle.co.uk or phone 01270 899681.

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