A Sleeper Either class (SLE) and Sleeper Either class with Pantry (SLEP) are a type of railway sleeping car

Sleeping car

The sleeping car or sleeper is a railway/railroad passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American railroads in the 1830s and could be configured...

 used in the United Kingdom. Some units were later modified for better wheelchair access as Sleeper Either class Disabled (SLED). A smaller number reused in Denmark were classified as WLABr.

A total of 208 vehicles were built at Derby Carriage and Wagon Works

Derby Carriage and Wagon Works

Derby Carriage and Wagon Works was built by the Midland Railway in Derby, England. The plant has been through many changes of ownership and is currently owned by Bombardier Transportation, a subsidiary of Bombardier Inc. of Canada. As of 2011 it is the only remaining passenger rolling stock...

 by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1982–1984 to the British Rail Mark 3

British Rail Mark 3

British Rail's third design of standard carriage was designated 'Mark 3' , and was developed primarily for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train...

A profile for British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

. They were introduced to replace an ageing fleet of Mark 1

British Railways Mark 1

British Railways Mark 1 was the family designation for the first standardised designs of railway carriages built by British Railways. Following nationalisation in 1948, BR had continued to build carriages to the designs of the "Big Four" companies , and the Mark 1 was intended to be the...

 vehicles sleeping cars built to various designs and which dated from the late 1950s to early 1960s. The order consisted of 90 SLE variants, numbered 10646–10734, were constructed with thirteen bedrooms each, and 118 SLEP variants, numbered 10500–10617 constructed with twelve bedrooms with the last compartment used for an attendant.

, the only mainline operators of these type of carriages are First Great Western

First Great Western

First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....

 on the Night Riviera

Night Riviera

The Night Riviera is a sleeper train service operated by First Great Western. It is one of only two remaining sleeper services on the railway in Great Britain...

 and First ScotRail

First ScotRail

ScotRail Railways Ltd. is the FirstGroup-owned train operating company running domestic passenger trains within Scotland, northern England and the cross-border Caledonian Sleeper service to London using the brand ScotRail which is the property of the Scottish Government...

 on the Caledonian Sleeper

Caledonian Sleeper

The Caledonian Sleeper is a sleeper train service operated by First ScotRail and one of only two remaining sleeper services running on the railways of Great Britain, the other being the Night Riviera....

.

With the decline of overnight sleeper services in the United Kingdom shortly after their introduction at the end of the 1980s, many of the carriages later were moved to heritage railways to provide sleeping accommodation for heritage staff and volunteers.

Service

On the Night Riviera

Night Riviera

The Night Riviera is a sleeper train service operated by First Great Western. It is one of only two remaining sleeper services on the railway in Great Britain...

 from London Paddington station

Paddington station

Paddington railway station, also known as London Paddington, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex.The site is a historic one, having served as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current mainline station dates...

 to Penzance railway station

Penzance railway station

Penzance railway station serves the town of Penzance, Cornwall, UK. The station is the western terminus of the Cornish Main Line from London Paddington station. The current journey time to or from London is about five hours....

 in Cornwall.

The various Scottish services depart from London Euston railway station

Euston railway station

Euston railway station, also known as London Euston, is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line...

 for final destinations at Glasgow Central station

Glasgow Central station

Glasgow Central is the larger of the two present main-line railway terminals in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. The station was opened by the Caledonian Railway on 31 July 1879 and is currently managed by Network Rail...

, Edinburgh Waverley railway station

Edinburgh Waverley railway station

Edinburgh Waverley railway station is the main railway station in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. Covering an area of over 25 acres in the centre of the city, it is the second-largest main line railway station in the United Kingdom in terms of area, the largest being...

, Aberdeen railway station

Aberdeen railway station

Aberdeen railway station is the main railway station in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the busiest railway station in Scotland north of the major cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.- History :...

, Inverness railway station

Inverness railway station

Inverness railway station is the railway station serving the Scottish city of Inverness.- History :Opened on 5 November 1855 as the western terminus of the Inverness and Nairn Railway, it is now the terminus of the Highland Main Line, the Aberdeen-Inverness Line , the Kyle of Lochalsh Line and the...

 and Fort William railway station

Fort William railway station

Fort William railway station is a railway station serving the town of Fort William in the Highland region of Scotland.- History :The present Fort William station opened on 13 June 1975. It replaced the original terminus which was further west and alongside Loch Linnhe at Station Square, in close...

.

Between 1988–1998, ten SLE carriages were leased to Danish State Railways (DSB) for use in Denmark. This lease came to an end following the opening of the Great Belt Fixed Link

Great Belt Fixed Link

The Great Belt Fixed Link is the fixed link between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen across the Great Belt. It consists of a road suspension bridge and railway tunnel between Zealand and the island Sprogø, as well as a box girder bridge between Sprogø and Funen...

 combined bridge and tunnel. During this time, the vehicles were classified as WLABr and each carried a UIC

International Union of Railways

The UIC , or International Union of Railways, is an international rail transport industry body.- Brief history :The railways of Europe originated as separate concerns. There were many border changes after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Colonial railways were the responsibility of the...

number.