The Kent & East Sussex heritage railway is introducing a gaming carriage during the May Half Term Holiday https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles...2upvJ91NKthTnU_6Vw_aem_pxeHrHvk-yVerhGoiadYRw
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K&ESR trials Gaming Carriage during May Half term holidays
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John Luxton
Established Member
Oh dear what is the world coming to? But I imagine there may be some demand and perhaps not just for the children.
One day around 2018/19 I parked the car at Abergynolwyn for a return trip to Tywyn on the Talyllyn Rly.
In the same carriage was a family of four both parents and their teenage children they were buried in their smart phones all the way from Abergynolwyn to Tywyn.
I did wonder why they had bothered going on the train! Perhaps they had taken in all the views on the way up the valley?
Like many I probably spend a lot of time looking at screens these days - but when on the move by train, bus or ship - the the phone is away and the view takes precedence.
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Tetragon213
Member
Missed opportunity for a computer to run Train Sim with the K&ESR pre-loaded? 
Being serious, anything that drives people to the railway can only be a good thing. If they had some railway-related games on there, that would actually work quite well imo. SimSig and TSW are fairly successful, after all; iirc LNER had a short series of drivers playing TSW a while back!
Being serious, anything that drives people to the railway can only be a good thing. If they had some railway-related games on there, that would actually work quite well imo. SimSig and TSW are fairly successful, after all; iirc LNER had a short series of drivers playing TSW a while back!
eastwestdivide
Established Member
Key things from the BBC article linked above:
CarltonA
Member
When I saw this post I had visions of passengers playing roulette, black jack and fruit machines etc. Maybe putting something on the nags. Obviously I'm a bit behind the times. 
Tetragon213
Member
Y'know, a gambling/casino train would actually make for an interesting idea.When I saw this post I had visions of passengers playing roulette, black jack and fruit machines etc. Maybe putting something on the nags. Obviously I'm a bit behind the times.
Dr Hoo
Established Member
And very prototypical. Just like the old ‘card sharps’ who infested race day specials to relieve gullible punters of their stake money before some slow horse did the same thing.
D841 Roebuck
Established Member
Surely the most appropriate gambling game for a train journey would be Chemin De Fer...When I saw this post I had visions of passengers playing roulette, black jack and fruit machines etc. Maybe putting something on the nags. Obviously I'm a bit behind the times.
Class15
Established Member
Probably games like Fortnite, FC25 (formerly FIFA) and Brawl Stars regrettably.
james_the_xv
Member
Whatever gets people through the doors paying fares in a climate where heritage rail is suffering a good idea to me
duffield
Established Member
I've read that gambling on the railway is banned by the bylaws, unless through an "authorised operator". I wonder what that means, since from the Gambling Commission website we see that (as you'd probably expect) local authorities authorise premises for gambling - how would that work for railways?You might have to get past the Bylaws first
For alcohol, I've always understood that on-train bars are exempt from the normal local authority licensing laws and so railways (national or heritage) can pretty much do as they please (maybe not so much in Scotland though!) - so I wonder if the same applies to gambling, and could the KESR (for example) "authorise" itself for on-train gambling?
YorkshireBear
Established Member
- Joined
- 23 Jul 2010
- Messages
- 9,100
Amen.
Railwaycat
Member
I would love to see an experiment with something outrageous happening in sight of a moving train (on the mainline) just to see how many people would report it, phone it in etc. I would imagine it would be zero given peoples (and I'm talking all ages) addiction to their phones and total disconnection from what's going on around them. And as you say, it applies to heritage railways with beautiful scenery too.
Tetragon213
Member
Hear hear! Increasing exposure to the world of heritage rail can only be a good thing, after all, and the money brought in certainly doesn't hurt!
TSW5, SimSig, hell even Sid Meier's Railroads! or (god forbid) Honkai Star Rail are at least keeping on theme. Maybe a few guys who try out SimSig on one of these days might actually enjoy it, and look into volunteering.
I'm sure the guys in the suits can find a work aroundYou might have to get past the Bylaws first
JGurney
Member
As reported "allowing participants to play games whilst their parent, partner or carer enjoys the countryside views ... gaming will only be in one direction, from Tenterden in Kent to Bodiam in East Sussex, so 'gamers can experience the sights with their other passengers' on the return journey"
It looks to me as if the only users will be children too young (or people with learning difficulties too vulnerable) to be left at home or allowed to do something else by themselves, and so have been taken along unwillingly because their parents, etc, want to visit the railway. However they will also have to be old or independent enough to be in the gaming carriage unsupervised while the rest of their party presumably sit in another ordinary one. I can't imagine why anyone with a choice would pay a heritage railway fare then just sit playing computer games on board when they could just as well do that at home. E.g. a partner who did not want to go on the train for the usual reasons would just go and do something else until their partner came back from their train ride, or stay at home. Will that limited clientele actually bring in enough extra revenue to cover the costs?
If the gaming kit is only in use one way, will that carriage be out of use in the other direction and the users seated elsewhere, which seems a waste of capacity, or will some passengers be sat among non-working gaming kit while they travel?
It has gotten the kesr free publicity, so whatever happens next it's a win, unless it actually puts people off visiting, and I'd consider that pretty unlikely. There are also more opportunities for publicity when it's actually running and again to reflect on how it went and whether to do it again.
Presumably the coach will still have windows that can be used by the non-playing companions
BlueLeanie
Member
I'm having visions of a carriage decked out with retro 1970s & 1980s arcade game machines.
The Robertsbridge Roulette train is due to start at Easter 2028
Tetragon213
Member
Something interesting to see on HMS Belfast, apparently they have a room with the video game World of Warships loaded. And yes, the demo accounts have HMS Belfast.
Side note: it's terrifying that the original HMS Belfast is preloaded on those accounts, because the original iteration of HMS Belfast was nothing short of torture to play against!
What an awful idea. Children spend far much time at home glued to their video games these days. Going out on a trip to a heritage railway should be an opportunity for children to get off screens and do something else. Parents should be encouraging their children to look out the windows and enjoy the train ride. Why would you take on your children on a day trip to a heritage railway only for them to play video games that they can play at home. Such an awful idea.
Unfortunately you’d have to stand up to play most of those which might be impractical on a moving train, I think one of those old retro tabletop machines would be much more refined!
Hope their trackwork is in a good state, being jolted about isn’t that conducive to playing games!
We are pretty confident that the railway will re-open to the main London to Hastings line at Robertsbridge Junction in the 2028 season. It was always a known that some of the bridges needed replacement. There was one unknown bridge issue but it was possible to reschedule the order of works to accomodate that.
The limiting factor timewise from obtaining the TWA to physical re-opening is actually paperwork rather than physical boots on the ground stuff.
Gostav
Member
- Joined
- 14 May 2016
- Messages
- 522
I've noticed that there seems to be a lack of uniqueness amongst the UK's heritage railways, with each line seemingly simply playing off the past of British railways. There is little information about the local customs. For example, there is no information at the station to tell tourists what special attractions there are in the area.
I noticed this on the Llangollen Railway - when we arrived at Corwen, the members simply gave a brief introduction to the reconstruction of the station, and people just simply visited the station building - No one went around the village, no one told me any information of Corwen, people just stayed briefly and then took the train back to Llangollen.
It seems like a good thing now that a heritage railway is trying to diversify its services.
I noticed this on the Llangollen Railway - when we arrived at Corwen, the members simply gave a brief introduction to the reconstruction of the station, and people just simply visited the station building - No one went around the village, no one told me any information of Corwen, people just stayed briefly and then took the train back to Llangollen.
It seems like a good thing now that a heritage railway is trying to diversify its services.
DarloRich
Veteran Member
This conservatism is what holds this country back! - Surely this is worth a go to see if it can attract more paying customers to the line. If nothing else it has got the railway some free publicity
I am more interested in how they are going to power the machines!
Tetragon213
Member
Once again, hear hear! HMS Belfast already has a gaming room on board with World of Warships preloaded, so this on the KESR isn't much of a stretch.
A PS5 needs about 220W to power it, and an LED TV usually needs around 50W. Even if we round up to 300W, that's not an overwhelming amount of power for even a relatively conventional mobile genny.