Rail racing

There are plenty of long distance high quality quadruple track railways.

There are occasional days when traffic is very light or non-existent e.g. Christmas day

Proposed is an annual rail racing festival. The selected line(s) are closed and no scheduled or maintenance services are run. Instead, a series of point-to-point races are organised.

A quadruple track allows for four competing teams, which is much more exciting than just two teams head-to-head.

There will be different classes, which are run sequentially through the day. The signal crew wil be engaged to assist with safe running to avoid collisions etc. and to advise on safe starting intervals for the different classes.

Suggested classes might include: restored steam engines; weight and endurance class (a long freight train of a specified number and weight of cars to be hauled over the route); a Human-powered class; an "open" class where any machine that can run on the rails is permitted, encouraging stripped-down high-speed entries. I think that the classes would be run in order of decreasing net speed so the open class would go first, and the human-power one would run last of all.

Of course the classes do not all have to use the same length of track; there could be shorter and longer courses marked.

Spectators could crowd the railway stations along the route; grandstands could be erected in fields in the open countryside at the start and finish points.

The events would all be completed by the end of the day, allowing the maintenance crews to work overnight to check for and repair any damage caused by the day's events, before scheduled services restart the following morning.

The advertising and ticket income would be a great boost to the finances of railway companies, as well as giving rail travel the same "cool by association" factor that motor-car racing gives to motor-car travel.