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Privately-Owned Rail Cars

amtrak.com

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Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#141

Post by saiya-jin »

chiph wrote: post #17

This is my "if I won the lottery" dream. Which it would have to be, since everything about it isn't cheap. Purchasing a Pullman car then upgrading it to Amtrak standards will cost at least $300k. Any interior upgrades are on top of that (renovating the galley with modern appliances, adding central air since some cars used block ice for cooling). Amtrak requires you add 480v head-end power (but you will likely want a…

A good friend of one of my ex was from india and their family had whole private train, I guess to compensate for bad roads back then. I guess its easier there with enough cash and connections. Great career, but he was/is quite out of touch with reality of how most people live their lives not only due to this.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#142

Post by aoetalks »

chiph wrote: post #17

This is my "if I won the lottery" dream. Which it would have to be, since everything about it isn't cheap. Purchasing a Pullman car then upgrading it to Amtrak standards will cost at least $300k. Any interior upgrades are on top of that (renovating the galley with modern appliances, adding central air since some cars used block ice for cooling). Amtrak requires you add 480v head-end power (but you will likely want a…

>For the less than 100 private cars in operation in America, why does Amtrak even offer this service?

What are you trying to ask? Don’t you answer this question, below?

>Like the first class section on an airliner, it's effectively all profit for them since the train was going there anyway and the extra fuel to haul it & supply power is minimal.

Or are you saying, there’s only 100 private cars, why not allow a Presidential fare from a fleet Amtrak cars?

My answer would be “ Like the first class section on an airliner, it's effectively all profit for them” this isn’t actually true. First class sections on planes were until recently mostly filled with frequent fliers that got free upgrades [1]. Those first class seats eat up a lot of space that could be directed to revenue-generating economy seats.

So I would imagine one reason Amtrak doesn’t offer a Presidential fare is because Amtrak would need to retrofit some cars to have that experience, and manage demand of those cars. The penalties of empty cars is less than that of an plane, but still.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/11/03/why-its-getting-harder-t...

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#143

Post by Symbiote »

saiya-jin wrote: post #141
chiph wrote: post #17

This is my "if I won the lottery" dream. Which it would have to be, since everything about it isn't cheap. Purchasing a Pullman car then upgrading it to Amtrak standards will cost at least $300k. Any interior upgrades are on top of that (renovating the galley with modern appliances, adding central air since some cars used block ice for cooling). Amtrak requires you add 480v head-end power (but you will likely want a…

A good friend of one of my ex was from india and their family had whole private train, I guess to compensate for bad roads back then. I guess its easier there with enough cash and connections. Great career, but he was/is quite out of touch with reality of how most people live their lives not only due to this.

In Britain it's straightforward to charter a private train from anywhere to anywhere else. It's most commonly done by football supporter clubs, so if Liverpool FC are playing at Wembley 500 supporters can travel direct from a station in Liverpool to Wembley Stadium Station in London.

Large business also do this for company events etc.

https://www.trainchartering.com/press/news_wembley.html is one company.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#144

Post by ehnto »

h0l0cube wrote: post #135
chiph wrote: post #17

This is my "if I won the lottery" dream. Which it would have to be, since everything about it isn't cheap. Purchasing a Pullman car then upgrading it to Amtrak standards will cost at least $300k. Any interior upgrades are on top of that (renovating the galley with modern appliances, adding central air since some cars used block ice for cooling). Amtrak requires you add 480v head-end power (but you will likely want a…

> Getting the car from there to the nearest Amtrak station will require you to hire a locomotive with crew I know long haul battery-electric trains don't make sense [0], but if it's a short distance, would it be feasible to have inbuilt battery + engine just to get the car to the Amtrak and maybe as backup power? > (some tracks require a second car coupled to the locomotive so crossings & signals work correctly) Obvi…

I have to imagine it's a similar scenario to pilots taking over your vessel in certain ports and passages. The job of the pilot (or the Amtrak hired crew) is that they are aligned with the port's goals and understand their scheduling and rules. I can't imagine they would want a private car moving of it's own accord operated by the owner, so you might still have to hire the Amtrak crew, and they might not be willing to operate your personal car since crew have to be trained on the locomotives. I am speculating though, I have no idea.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#145

Post by ehnto »

techdragon wrote: post #24
kposehn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, you're subscriber number one then. Anyone else? I'm completely serious. Private Varnish (ie: private railcars) have always been something I love. It would be a hoot to live in one with my fam for a year (if I can convince them).

I'm all on this for actually helping physically do this (even for loose definitions of physical, like run a website haha, but I'd imagine someone on HN restoring a train carriage could manage a Wix/SquareSpace/etc site by themselves)... I've wanted to build a steam engine since I was a kid, I thought it would be amazing to design a stupidly modern steam engine and break the world records with it, and this, while this…

Plenty of hobby clubs build wooden boats for fun as a group, why not railcars!

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#146

Post by club_tropical »

drfuchs wrote: post #20

We rode the New York Central 3, a private car built for a Vanderbilt a century ago, cross country, attached to the rear of the Lake Shore Limited, changing in Chicago to the California Zephyr. A great experience, watching the scenery go by for 4 days, with a 270-degree view from the sitting room in the rear. Basically, there are hobbyists who buy and upgrade these cars, and try to break even on chartering trips on th…

I love this, thank you for sharing.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#147

Post by club_tropical »

zachlatta wrote: post #32

Some of you might be interested in The Hacker Zephyr, a cross-country train hackathon with 42 teenagers from across the world. We worked with Amtrak and an amazing team of train enthusiasts to get 3 vintage train cars on The California Zephyr’s route across the US. We started in Vermont and ended in Los Angeles, traveling 3,502 miles over 10 days. Short documentary: https://youtu.be/2BID8_pGuqA Planning documents and…

Insanely cool.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#148

Post by club_tropical »

runarberg wrote: post #109
Cupertino95014 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking entrepreneurially here: Why not lease a car for a month, or a year? All those inspection, maintenance, parking, and labor costs are rolled into your fee, except the railroad can handle them much better than you can. If it's "your" car, only people you approve of can sit in it. It's a rolling party!

I’ve had similar thoughts, not as a entrepreneur, but as a way to squander the lottery money on one epic party, that starts in Seattle and ends 32 hours later in LA.

Hope you can make this happen.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#149

Post by differentview97 »

moooo99 wrote: post #136
pooper wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I always feel like Software licenses are a different beast. For example, 300k in Windows license costs might not be mulch out of a 50M budget, but it is much when you think about the fact that these costs could also be zero.

How exactly could these costs be 0?

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#150

Post by [deleted] »

chiph wrote: post #17

This is my "if I won the lottery" dream. Which it would have to be, since everything about it isn't cheap. Purchasing a Pullman car then upgrading it to Amtrak standards will cost at least $300k. Any interior upgrades are on top of that (renovating the galley with modern appliances, adding central air since some cars used block ice for cooling). Amtrak requires you add 480v head-end power (but you will likely want a…

[deleted]
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