Originally Posted by
njkayaker
It's a cute idea. It would be unfortunate if the route was compromized to accomodate it.
The "theme" stuff should come after the route and experience.
Many riders don't really want to stop very long, which, if you want to be courteous to them, then stops should be useful too (I doubt that train stations would generally be useful).
Not sure how a route is "compromised" to visit a train station any more than it's "compromised" to visit a cafe or an ice cream shop. If you're doing a permanent where the control is an area that happens to include a station among other things then you could buy yourself a coffee and cake, an spare inner tube or a platform ticket at the station. The fact some might choose to indulge a bit of train spotting doesn't detract from the route for those less interested in trains.
If someone is planning their own route (what we in the UK would call a DIY) then as long as the distance between controls is within limits they can set the controls wherever they want. So if they have a passion for railways they could make every single control a railway station.
How useful a train station is depends on the station. Some are little more than platforms with grumpy attendants and overpriced vending machines that don't work. Others practically have shopping centres built in. I did a brevet last year where one of the control points was a vintage railway with a rather nice cafe.
It doesn't seem that helpful/useful to promote cute/gimicky ideas.
It doesn't seem that helpful/useful to nitpick a theoretical construct - if you want to discuss relative merits go ahead, if you want to ignore it go ahead, but nitpicking it is no more helpful/useful than someone turning up and posting that they think it's silly to ride 400km when you could just take the car.