Yep - it wasn't specifically aimed at you. There's plenty of other posts about charter sets!
OK no worries. I'm just glad I cemented my memories of them in their original (GatEx) form, on the ROG railtour a few years back.
Oh ye, loco hauled, I've never heard that mentioned before!Or just remove the motor coaches from 2 sets and drag them around?
Or just remove the motor coaches from 2 sets and drag them around?
Had the pandemic not happened there may have been more potential in saving a couple for that sort of operation... but then had the pandemic not happened they might well be running along the Pompey Direct by now!
Pretty much this. I have fond memories of being about 6 years old and travelling down to Weymouth with my parents when they were introduced. I remember them having that 'new car' (or rather train!) aroma and being wowed by the swish looking compartments and buffet. Sadly these memories were sullied by using them on Gatwick Express services years later with the cheapo retrograde refurb. I was even less endeared to them when one I was travelling on failed outside East Croydon and I made a flight with minutes to spare.
Still enough seat frames in the Greater Anglia 321 fleet to restore at least one carriage to the original interior. The motor coach and first class coach would obviously be a more complicated project though.
Oh right, I didn't realise they were the same seats. My memories of these in their original configuration are rather hazy!
First class seats in the 321s are the same as the original standard class seats in the 442s - however, the motor coach got different (and unique to the class) seat frames when the seating area was first extended into the luggage compartment.
Why wouldn’t they have already stripped more than enough spares than they’ll ever need from all the ex-HST or high speed Mk3 hauled vehicles? This is clutching at straws again…
No more so than those stating about using the 442's for railtours! As the old saying goes, every little helps!
Why does it concern us whether or not spares are recovered? It’s Angel Trains’ problem and makes not one iota of difference to anyone outside of the train companies.
No ETS for one.
It's actually SWR's they've taken possession of them.
It would be well beyond any heritage railway's budget. You'd need to design the computer simulation, work out which lines you want to simulate and what scenarios to offer, then train somebody to operate the simulation whilst the punters are at the controls. A cab-view video on a loop, so that people could sit at the controls and get a 'drivers-eye' view of the run from Woking to Basingstoke, or similar would be manageable though.
The best bet for any sort of "virtual driving experience" type thing would probably have to wait for an existing driver training simulator to be replaced. Perhaps Science Museum Group could work with GBR to secure one when the time comes, as it would probably get folk through the doors (or rather off the other end of the footbridge) at York.
Ah, but... <Insert comments about 3rd rail world speed record here>
Even that's not much of a record. The only country with mainline 3rd rail running (i.e. 100mph) manages to get one of it's highest powered multiple units to do a fast run, just 9mph above normal linespeed. If one of the LNR Class 350/1 sets had shoes put back on (and any current software bars on DC running removed), it could do 110mph in service (PW dept permitting on 3rd rail).
BIB is the problem - as was explained above, it costs a fortune to maintain things to mainline standards, and to fund that you have to be able to sell enough seats at a high enough price. You can't run a silver-service dining like the Brighton Belle or fill trains with grandparents and grandchildren like a steam train using a 442. If the only people who are going to go on it are people who were living around the SWML in 1987 then I don't really see how the business remains afloat.interesting to note that most emus that have been preserved, most havnt been restored and and are sat around, only a small number have been, and not to mane line working condition, so it seems at the moment theres no real love for anything that isnt a steam train
only the demu thumper and the brighton bell and the tc set i think are the closest things mainline rail worthy, is a shame as there is a gap in the market for that sort of thing, a small gap but still, for me being on that tc set hauled by some 73s was more interesting that a steam or diesel tour...mabey im alone in thinking that
