New lives for Pacers - The less-than-serious thread!

[pete_mcfarlane]

21 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Perhaps we should launch one into space? 

Rather like Top Gear tried to do with a Reliant Robin?

[sem34090]

Perhaps we ought to do what I'm doing with a 00 one, possibly, and use the powered undergubbins under a 19th/early 20th century 4-Wheeler to propel non-running Pre-Grouping locos?

[jhb171achil]

After Brexit, they could take over London - Inverness expresses......

[009 micro modeller]

1 hour ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

Rather like Top Gear tried to do with a Reliant Robin?

 

Exactly! Just what I was thinking of. Another piece of transport history/old junk (delete as appropriate) launched into space!

[009 micro modeller]

1 hour ago, sem34090 said:

Perhaps we ought to do what I'm doing with a 00 one, possibly, and use the powered undergubbins under a 19th/early 20th century 4-Wheeler to propel non-running Pre-Grouping locos?

 

I actually like this idea, it would save having to expensively rebuild all the pristine museum examples and lose original material from them. Perhaps the driver could stand on the dead steam loco’s footplate and drive the TSEPPV (Top Secret Ex-Pacer Propulsion Vehicle ) by remote control, as is done with modern steelworks shunters.

 

No, really: 

 

(I suspect this technology exists on industrial railways as an updated, safer version of the old technique of slowing to a crawl, then getting out of the cab and running to change the next set of points before the loco gets there.)

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by 009 micro modeller

[sem34090]

11 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

I actually like this idea, it would save having to expensively rebuild all the pristine museum examples and lose original material from them.

Most of the NRM locos are shuntable, so moving them isn't an issue... this idea is appealing, though I think the main problem would be the raucous noise of a Pacer!

11 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Perhaps the driver could stand on the dead steam loco’s footplate and drive the TSEPPV (Top Secret Ex-Pacer Propulsion Vehicle ) by remote control, as is done with modern steelworks shunters.

 

No, really: 

 

(I suspect this technology exists on industrial railways as an updated, safer version of the old technique of slowing to a crawl, then getting out of the cab and running to change the next set of points before the loco gets there.)

I suppose it could work, and yes I reckon your latter theory is right.

[Pacific231G]

On 13/07/2019 at 23:40, 009 micro modeller said:

 

In a similar vein, perhaps the company that runs the Orient Express, Grand Hibernian etc could launch a unit with a luxuriously fitted interior and sleeping area as ‘The Belmond Great British Pacer Experience’, spending several days travelling around the north of England (and occasionally Cornwall) but charging a ridiculously high price.

 Don't Northern Rail, GWR et al already charge a ridiculously high price for a completely authentic Pacer Experience with some journeys already taking several days ? 

 

Since they're really buses they could always cast Sir Cliff Richard, Melvyn Hayes, Una Stubbs and The Shadows in a remake where they travel around Europe by rail in one. We're already an international laughing stock so it couldn't do our national reputation any more harm.

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Pacific231G

[TravisM]

Could do what NYC did with a large number of their withdrawn red subway cars.  Strip them of all hazardous materials, put them on a barge, tow it out to sea and unceremoniously push them into the sea to create artificial reefs for divers to explore and wildlife to inhabit.  Oh scrub that, this thread is for silly ideas lol.

[PatB]

13 hours ago, jools1959 said:

Could do what NYC did with a large number of their withdrawn red subway cars.  Strip them of all hazardous materials, put them on a barge, tow it out to sea and unceremoniously push them into the sea to create artificial reefs for divers to explore and wildlife to inhabit.  Oh scrub that, this thread is for silly ideas lol.

I don't know if it's all that sensible. Didn't it come up on a previous thread that most of those subway car reefs had collapsed into not terribly interesting metal pancakes fairly quickly?

[TravisM]

1 hour ago, PatB said:

I don't know if it's all that sensible. Didn't it come up on a previous thread that most of those subway car reefs had collapsed into not terribly interesting metal pancakes fairly quickly?

 

Hi there, I wasn’t aware of that and to be honest, it had to happen fairly quickly as their hardly the sturdiest of structures.

[brack]

Connect 10 together in a train as the new mobile house of commons while they refurbish the crumbly one by the Thames. They could journey around these isles. I daresay it'd be interesting to see their own constituencies for some of them.

I suspect it might increase investment in rail services...

Edited July 15, 2019 by brack

[rab]

On 13/07/2019 at 23:54, 009 micro modeller said:

Perhaps we should launch one into space? 

Would that make them Spacers?

 

Or perhaps Cr#psules?

Edited July 15, 2019 by rab
Afterthought

[Welly]

On 14/07/2019 at 00:23, sem34090 said:

Make the Americans suffer them?

This is such a simple way to improve the ride of the Pacers - mount them on bogied wagon flats! Why have we not thought on this before.....

[Phatbob]

Somebody should turn one into a micropub called "The Nodding Donkey".

[stewartingram]

All this talk of replacing Pacers, or finding new uses for them  - why not just leave them where they are? I thought Northerners were supposed to be a hardy species?

 

Stewart