CATS can be found at many railway stations across the UK, where they are popular with staff and commuters. Some of them even have their own Twitter accounts, which leads to the thought that cats might be smarter than we ever imagined.

Felix, “senior pest controller” at Huddersfield Station, not only has 11,400 followers (“All views expressed are feline”, says her Twitter biography), and 130,000 on Facebook, but she has also become a media celebrity, with people coming from as far away as China to take a selfie with her. She even has her own line in merchandise and has been the subject of a book.

For years, Inverness station had a cat, named Diesel, “a much-loved personality around the station,” a ScotRail official remarked in 2009 upon Diesel’s demise. And until recently, Hyndland station, in Glasgow, had a cat named Hermes.

There were few such outlets for stardom for Billy Sooty, back in the day, even if he did make the pages of The Bulletin. “Billy Sooty has only been a few years in the railway service,” the paper’s report reads, but at Central Station, Glasgow, he goes on his rounds like a station master - stalking from booking office to Left Luggage and Lost Property.”

Billy Sooty, who had one amber eye and one blue, liked to catch rodents (some old habits evidently die hard) and to make brief rail trips to Polmadie and Larkfield. He was also a regular fixture in the station canteen.