There was a great story a few years ago on Bloomberg that discussed purchasing your own rail car. [0].
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-25/can-you-b...
Privately-Owned Rail Cars
151–160 of 250 posts
Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars
#152This 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…
I have a similar, but more attainable train goal of riding the Amtrak Empire Builder route from Chicago to Spokane. The route looks beautiful and has a few nice stops along the way.
If you want a shorter version that cuts out all of the flatlands, fly to Great Falls, rent a car and drop it/board at East Glacier and then ride it to Spokane.
Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Use free software?
Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Over here in the Netherlands you'll sometimes see museum trains used to tow stranded passenger trains.[0] Quite an odd sight! [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZZIEo0NXQY
That's a special one-off kind of thing. But the railway museum runs a historic train hourly from Utrecht Centraal (I think the largest station in the country) to their museum. That's also a strange sight to see passing by at crossings.
I've been to the railway museum a lot (my son is a train nut), and in my experience it's just a regular train, not a historic one.
Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 t…
Correct, to drive the train you’d need to have an engineer qualified on the railroad.
Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars
#156This 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 Presid…
I think it was a rhetorical question of sorts.
Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars
#157Anyone play the Assassins' Creed game where your base of operations in the game was a train car that continuously moved around the game world while you were on (or off) it? I thought that was a really neat mechanic
For anyone else wondering/interested, apparently it's in Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 t…
Good points. I guess it makes even more sense when considering that the crew also needs to transport themselves to the car from the station
Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars
#159This 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…
Thanks for the really interesting writeup!
> Personally I wonder why Amtrak doesn't offer a "Presidential" fare, where 6 or so people can book a private car and get truly top tier service.
Could a 3rd-party company offer this? I.e., they own and operate the Presidential-like cars, and are a contractual middle-man between Amtrak and the riders?
Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
How exactly could these costs be 0?
Use free software?
I'm absolutely pro-FOSS but also want to point out that just the licence cost comparison here isn't too meaningful. Licence + maintenance cost fould be a much more sensible figure (and much less likely to be zero).