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Privately-Owned Rail Cars

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Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#121

Post by Kon-Peki »

HankB99 wrote: post #88
Kon-Peki wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these new trains different from the Siemens locomotives that Amtrak have been using in the Midwest for the last ~10 years? I don’t recall ever seeing anything on the back of those trains.

I wonder if it's like the double-decker passenger cars used for Metra in Chicago. These trains never change direction (like Amtrak) but just run forward (IIRC) into the city and reverse back out to the suburbs. The car on the end has a small cab where the engineer sits and controls the train when it is running reversed. From the outside the difference between that and a passenger car is pretty subtle.

Ha! I’ve always thought that all the Metra cars were identical and each one had a cab for when the train is heading into the city (Metra always configures trains so they “back into” the Chicago terminal (Union Station/Ogilvie/LaSalle).

Like the CTA (and the South Shore) trains - every single pair could be be the lead. They all have a spot for a driver (engineer?)

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#122

Post by ak217 »

kccqzy wrote: post #105
ak217 wrote: post #43

I once was on an Amtrak train that was delayed by 6 hours because of this crap. It started with a 2 hour delay while they were hooking up someone's private car, and missed its timeslots on the rest of the route, then the crew timed out, and the delays snowballed (and the train had a skeleton crew for the rest of the trip). A few years ago, they banned this practice because of these types of issues. If they're reintro…

I don't think you need to worry. From https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-25/can-you-b... > One year ago, Amtrak issued a policy notice saying it would make drastic cuts in operating charter services run by private owners. “These operations caused significant operational distraction, failed to capture fully allocated profitable margins, and sometimes delayed our paying customers on our scheduled trains,”…

Yeah, that's the "banned this practice" change that I was talking about.

The documents in the link that the post is about are from 2021/2022 though. So they must have un-banned it. The "guidelines" document at https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/p... lists 44 Amtrak stations throughout the US where this practice is allowed (and likely to continue to disrupt schedules for regular passengers).

It's infuriating actually. There are plenty of historic railroad societies that own track around the US where people can take their railcars to be driven around. Amtrak has a credibility problem because of its reputation for being unreliable, and this affects public perception of passenger rail transit overall and how worthwhile it is to invest in it.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#123

Post by walrus01 »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #64
chiph wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Starlinks new in-motion service you could have really great connectivity on those trips.

Wouldn't normal cell service suffice as well? Unlike in an RV, you'd presumably never be too far from civilization.

If you can afford a private rail car I'm sure you can also afford a peplink router with dual wan interface, and one of the two way going to starlink, the other to a cradlepoint LTE modem and antenna system for T-Mobile or Verizon.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#124

Post by chrisco255 »

latchkey wrote: post #110
chrisco255 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live the RV life. Before this I camped in a rooftop tent mounted to my truck. The woods are among the least dangerous places you can go. But also, shocking as this is, you can take your truck or van to dense urban areas if you desire. There is little need for "customer support" when you are driving your own vehicle. Occasionally you get repair problems but mechanics are readily available in even small towns. Van li…

Funny, I own a campervan and have driven all up and down the west coast. The one single time I had something weird happen, it was in the middle of nowhere in a forest in Oregon. Parked on the side of the dirt road in a little side road off the main road. Was sound asleep when I heard a banging on the door. Must have been 3am or something... I got up and peered out the window covers and saw a guy standing there yellin…

That is indeed weird but could even more easily happen in downtown Portland as in the middle of the woods. I definitely think you need to maintain situational awareness and carry protection, but that is true of any kind of travel.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#125

Post by latchkey »

chrisco255 wrote: post #124
latchkey wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, I own a campervan and have driven all up and down the west coast. The one single time I had something weird happen, it was in the middle of nowhere in a forest in Oregon. Parked on the side of the dirt road in a little side road off the main road. Was sound asleep when I heard a banging on the door. Must have been 3am or something... I got up and peered out the window covers and saw a guy standing there yellin…

That is indeed weird but could even more easily happen in downtown Portland as in the middle of the woods. I definitely think you need to maintain situational awareness and carry protection, but that is true of any kind of travel.

I also spent 2 years living on a motorbike went 15k km all over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos... some of the most remote places... never once had an issue with anyone.

That said, in this case, I wasn't sleep out in the middle of a forest but I do have friends who do it more camping style and they haven't had issues.

I guess it is all just luck of the draw (or some say, karma).

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#126

Post by ninjin »

GrifMD wrote: post #27

You should see how impressive some of the luxury trains have gotten. Japan has a couple of them that are particularly luxurious. And while these aren't owned by individuals, they're indicative of what you could own. https://www.luxurytrainclub.com/trains/seven-stars-kyushu/ https://www.jreast.co.jp/shiki-shima/en/

Thank you for sharing this. I have many times seen the Shiki-Shima (“Four-season Island”) head north from Tokyo past where I used to live and wondered just what it was that I was observing. Up until now I thought it was a private train and I could have sworn that I spotted a piano in the lounge each time it passed.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#127

Post by yuppiepuppie »

drfuchs wrote: post #96
throwawaysleep wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much did that cost?

This particular car sleeps 8, and it cost us less than 4 couples taking a cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal, and less than booking a private jet that seats 8, but more than first class airfare for 8 cross-country. And it also depends on whether they find someone to book (some subset of) the return trip that will start within a day or two of your arrival; otherwise you have to cover their…

I’m sorry, but you didn’t answer the question. How much did it cost?

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#128

Post by pooper »

bombcar wrote: post #70
QuarterReptile wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You always have a sense of a ton of money sloshing around in these sorts of things; in college we used to get symphony orchestras to fly our group out to collaborate on performances. But, it's a different matter to see it enumerated. For anyone not wanting to read through, I found ~$160,000 in private train car payments, and somewhere around $40,000 in fees and tickets to Amtrak.

That’s $5k per kid or $500/day per kid. Not bad at all considering.

I always get the feeling that I am not good with big numbers.

Like a public library spending USD 50k+ per month(?) to Oracle seems outrageous to me but I guess it isn't so outrageous given the annual budget is over USD 100M?

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#129

Post by HWR_14 »

chiph wrote: post #35
Kon-Peki wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to know what you’re talking about, so… I’ve heard that occasionally (rarely) they need to put some “public” cars behind the private ones. And if that happens, you are not allowed to prevent the public passengers from walking through your private car to get between the public sections. Is that the case?

Yes that's true. They try to put private cars at the front or rear of a train, but sometimes they aren't able to. So you may have the public walking through as you eat dinner. Comes with the territory {shrug}. Train crew (conductors) always have the right to walk through the car. If your train goes into Tampa Florida for example, the train has to reverse out of the station to a wye so it can turn around. If you are t…

So you have to worry about the actual sleeping room doors being locked, and cannot leave a laptop just lying out in the dining room?

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#130

Post by slyall »

yuppiepuppie wrote: post #127
drfuchs wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This particular car sleeps 8, and it cost us less than 4 couples taking a cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal, and less than booking a private jet that seats 8, but more than first class airfare for 8 cross-country. And it also depends on whether they find someone to book (some subset of) the return trip that will start within a day or two of your arrival; otherwise you have to cover their…

I’m sorry, but you didn’t answer the question. How much did it cost?

From some quick googling:

   * First Class is around $2500/person = $20,000 for 8.
   * Private jet across country is around $40-60,000
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