Model for Traveller's Check text

The genre of this text is an article from an in-flight magazine. Its tone therefore is likely to be persuasive, as it is in effect an advert for the airlines services, as they only write about places they go to, and only ever in a positive light. It cannot be seen as an impartial opinion.
The purpose is to inform the readers about the North Borneo Railway, in an effort to persuade them to use it, and to use Malaysia Airlines to get there.
There is also a light-heartedness to the tone, which the author establishes early, with the pun in the title, between a possible means of paying for the journey and an introduction to the information to follow about the railway.
The attraction of train travel is outlined in the opening paragraph.: the metaphor “opened up the countryside” makes train travel attractive by suggesting new discoveries or the revelation of something concealed until now. “Head-off” is light-hearted and gives the idea that travel is relaxing and freedom-giving. The mention of Thomas Cook in the second paragraph gives historical accuracy and therefore credibility to train travel as something tried and tested.
The idiomatic usage of “puffin’ billy” is informal which gives the passage an easy feel to it. Train travel is for everyone. The metaphor “paradise” to describe the railway in north Borneo makes the countryside which it passes through seem idyllic., the most beautiful place on earth, or even a beauty which transcends the earth. The structure of the rest of the paragraph makes it easy to follow the rest of the passage because the writer outlines two options for travel on the railway, which then makes it possible to devote a paragraph to one of them. The idiom “trainheads” must mean those who love train travel, again the informal tone makes train travel seem accessible to ordinary people, and the newness of the idiom makes train travel seem modern and possibly an attraction for the young, who are the people who might invent this new slang.
In the fourth paragraph the vocabulary item “narrow rickety” is used to describe the train. Normally these adjectives would not enhance an overall description, but in this case they serve to make the train appear attractively old-fashioned. As if the privilege of having such a historical experience makes it worthwhile to suffer this discomfort. . The “lunatic fringe, fanatical steam train devotees” raises train travel to an almost religious level which is clearly hyperbole. Lunatic fringe is humorous because it suggests that those who like train travel are in some way mentally deranged. Contrast is established when the writer goes on to describe the other, completely different type of travelers (those with only a passing interest) therefore it can be seen that train travel is for all, and so every reader is included as a possible traveller, adding to the persuasive tone of the passage. The vocabulary captures the history and therefore the credibility of train travel in words such as “nostalgia” and “oblivion” with their connotations of long time scales. A simile describing the train as being “like a time capsule’ makers the train seem old-fashioned, by suggesting a trip on it is not only through this part of Malaysia but back through history to a time pre-dating our own modern trains. The metaphor “lifeline” comes from the literal idea of throwing a drowning person a rope with which to be pulled ashore: thus the vital importance of the railway to people’s way of life is underpinned.
In conclusion the writer seeks to persuade people to use these trains through an appeal to their sense of nostalgia.