With only six minutes until departure from Oslo Central station, the F6 train was brightly lit inside, passengers popping in and out of compartment doors. We were not on board. In our eagerness, we’d plucked the key cards to our own compartments from the conductor’s hand on the concourse, then rushed down the ramp to the platform, forgetting to note our carriage number. Now, a kindly employee holding a bag of fresh radishes was peering at the cards. “I can’t help you, I’m afraid,” he shrugged. “I’m just driving the train.”      

My husband, two daughters (eight and six) and I had come to Norway on a summer railway adventure. For three years I’ve been riding night trains, researching a book on Europe’s sleeper services as they experience an unexpected renaissance. Late last year came news of the “Norient Express” — a luxurious private train that would travel from Bergen to Oslo and Trondheim, with fine food, an observation car and even an on-board gym. Originally due to launch this autumn, the train made a big splash but then everything went quiet. It has yet to materialise — and it now seems it won’t for a couple of years.

I wasn’t willing to wait to introduce my family to the singular charm of Norway’s railways, so we were now in the capital about to set off on a regular night train along the Dovre line, en route for Trondheim and in search of the midnight sun. Fortunately, the conductor appeared and guided us into carriage 10, where we stowed bags as the train slid out of the station. We then sought out the dining car, passing the family carriage where a father and his toddler stacked coloured bricks in the playroom.