People will see the front of the train. The fact is that an EMU will have a more striking appearance. If you use a locomotive then it will not be as striking so people will notice even if they don't exactly know what a locomotive is. You were saying that people don't care if there is a locomotive or not but as I say there will be a difference in appearance and the locomotive would not look as modern as the EMU.
You say an EMU will have a more striking appearance? Considering you havent specifically mentioned 91s, or 390s, am i to assume you mean EMUs are more striking, no matter what?
OK, so we put a 90 up against a 421. The 421 looks more striking now does it? How about a 456? Is the 456 now more striking?
Also, another example (strange, but a good example of your comment). I take all the gubbins out from underneath the pendo coaches, take the seats out of the driving cars, plate the windows over, and fill them with all the gubbins. Pantographs are taken, and moved to the driving cars. This is now a loco and coaches (albeit with a loco either end). We now put this new pendo loco up against a conventional pendo. Are we saying the new pendo loco is all of a sudden less striking, purely because its a loco?
Perhaps your on about 91s and pendos still, but your comment never said this. You made it sound as if EMUs will always be more striking no matter what. Perhaps your only on about current locos, and current EMUs, but then my original point still stands.
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Presumably if you take the "it'd be cheaper to just keep refurbishing/patching them up every few years" argument then the same applies for Pacers?
Face it, Mk3s weren't designed to last fifty years, all trains/ coaches/ units have a finite lifespan.
When Mk3s were new you had enthusiasts calling them rubbish because they replaced their old favourites. It happens every generation. We all love HSTs now, but they seemed characterless and dull compared to the power of the Deltics. Similarly, some didn't like the Deltics because they replaced Pacifics... I'm sure the Deltics/ Pacifics were also seen as the "pinnacle" of design when they were being withdrawn.
The thing is, the only reason people are still on about keeping Mk3s around for years to come, is because we havent yet seen anything better when it comes to Intercity trains (except for the Mk4s which are on a par). Also because we dont have faith in these new trains being worked on by DFT and Hitachi. If we had faith in it, and we were going to get decent, quiet, unpowered Intercity coaches, then very few people would be keeping on about keeping Mk3s in service. Whether they should be kept in service or not, this wouldnt matter were we to see a proper HST replacement. Some people dont mind underfloor engines, but a lot of people do for Intercity trains, and its because we arent getting, what is seen as an Intercity train, that we get these arguments.
Build us a decent HST replacement, and wire up a decent amount of track, and I bet we wouldnt be having this argument here. Even those that dont mind underfloor engines wouldnt be arguing, because nobody minds a quieter train.
But it was completely irrelevant to my original point, which was that a DMU is constantly noisy - so to the passenger getting on at a station where the train is already in, a DMU - according to your 'quiet = new' logic - would seem 'older' than the 91, since it's making more noise in the station when the passenger sees it.
