On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:54:31 -0000 a message from "Peter Masson"
contained:

"Paul Scott" wrote

'The Highwayman' - left Newcastle very late pm, took the coastal route
through Sunderland, arrived FP about 0600. Travelled on it once in the
late
60s - don't think it ran for long though, it was a bit like a fully seated
sleeper...

IIRC the Highwayman was a day train - though the routeing was as you state.
It ran, again IIRC, in the early 1970s, and although it was something of a
dead-end in development of rail travel it proved the need for lower fares
for leisure travellers. Before then long distance tickets were basically
limited to Ordinary Singles and Returns, though there had for many years
been Mid-Week Holiday Returns (Summer only, out and back on Tuesdays,
Wednesdays and Thursdays, return within one omonth of outward journey, but
not in teh same week). After the Highwayman, Economy and 17-day Returns were
developed, which were the forerunners of Savers and Supersavers.
As for overnight cheap trains you may have been thinking of Nightriders
which ran, IIRC, in the 1980s between Scotland and London. At one stage the
Nightrider seated portion of the overnight Aberdeen to London train
wasmarketed by and liveried for Stagecoach, this time as the forerunner of
rail privatisation.

From Modern Railways May 1971 (p245)
quote
"Highwayman" rides on
The cheap-fare "Highwayman" between the North-East and London is to
continue operation until November 6. The ER reports that it has
carried some 150 000 passengers since its inauguration, but that
summer business has been much more successful than that of the winter.
Apparently the service is not regarded as a permanent summer feature,
since the official ER announcement says only that if this summer's
results repeat those of 1970, "it could well be" that the facilities
will be reintroduced in the summer of 1972. The train will continue to
operate between Newcastle and Finsbury Park with intermediate stops at
Sunderland, Seaham, Hartlepool, Stockton, Eaglescliffe, Stevenage and
Potters Bar, leaving Newcastle at 9.15 (14.35 SO) and Finsbury Park at
9.28 (15.00 SO), but the fare was increased to £2.25 from May 3.
/quote

A letter in the July 1971 magazine (p3) about the Highwayman makes
passing reference to "the Starlight scheme of some years ago" which
sounds like it might have been overnight. There is a poster from 1958
advertising the 'Starlight Special' between Edinburgh Glasgow and
London at
http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10174317.
--
Chris Silke