Broken Viking
On Moderation
Hail All! 
I had an interesting thought earlier this afternoon that - Given how it's progressed and worked with sea travel over the years - "Cruise" trips (Railtours running over a number of days) could easily be done on the railways too. Unlike conventional sea-cruises though, ye'd always have something different and more interesting than just sea to look at wherever ye are in the journey.
At an operational level, I reckon it could be done fairly easily (For initial trials at least) using a rake of Mk. IIIs (Some sleepers obviously, plus unclassified seating, buffet, and an extra resturant car) top-and-tailed by 43's, with four drivers working in turn. Each driver could do six hours driving, six hours co-driving, and have 12 hours "off" to safely allow the train to remain continuously moving 24 hours a day.
Likewise, each locomotive could do a 12-hour "shift" (Front loco 00:00-11:59, rear loco 12:00-23:59) to reduce fuel consumption and engine wear...Although this would only allow 90-100mph operation, and might cause problems given the differences between "push" and "pull" operation.
Either way though, it could be a way of allowing horrendously long journeys like Aberdeen to Warsaw (Or London to New York via Iceland/Nova Scotia if the p-way existed) to be done in relative comfort, and if it were to become popular it might be worth building specialist carriages (With cinemas, casinos, shops etc.) to allow such services to be more like a "cruise". I suppose the only headache might be trying to fit normal cruise facilities inside the standard British loading guage without ending up with a two-mile long train!
Either way, it's just an idea that I had this afternoon...I thought I'd post it and see what other people thought of it.
Farewell...
>> Death <<
I had an interesting thought earlier this afternoon that - Given how it's progressed and worked with sea travel over the years - "Cruise" trips (Railtours running over a number of days) could easily be done on the railways too. Unlike conventional sea-cruises though, ye'd always have something different and more interesting than just sea to look at wherever ye are in the journey.
At an operational level, I reckon it could be done fairly easily (For initial trials at least) using a rake of Mk. IIIs (Some sleepers obviously, plus unclassified seating, buffet, and an extra resturant car) top-and-tailed by 43's, with four drivers working in turn. Each driver could do six hours driving, six hours co-driving, and have 12 hours "off" to safely allow the train to remain continuously moving 24 hours a day.
Likewise, each locomotive could do a 12-hour "shift" (Front loco 00:00-11:59, rear loco 12:00-23:59) to reduce fuel consumption and engine wear...Although this would only allow 90-100mph operation, and might cause problems given the differences between "push" and "pull" operation.
Either way though, it could be a way of allowing horrendously long journeys like Aberdeen to Warsaw (Or London to New York via Iceland/Nova Scotia if the p-way existed) to be done in relative comfort, and if it were to become popular it might be worth building specialist carriages (With cinemas, casinos, shops etc.) to allow such services to be more like a "cruise". I suppose the only headache might be trying to fit normal cruise facilities inside the standard British loading guage without ending up with a two-mile long train!
Either way, it's just an idea that I had this afternoon...I thought I'd post it and see what other people thought of it.
Farewell...
>> Death <<
