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Privately-Owned Rail Cars

amtrak.com

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Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#161

Post by adriand »

fabioborellini wrote: post #138
chiph wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Railroad companies having cab cars in Europe do sometimes run them in the middle of trains. It is not impossible, it just voids the benefits of having a cab car for the particular train and schedule. Sometimes it is acceptable in the greater scheme of scheduling and planning. One example that comes to my mind is prisoner transports. I have seen a prisoner car (which cannot be passed through by passengers or crew, it…

I feel like for people with the means to have one of these, having the plebeians pass through your car is a feature, not a bug.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#162

Post by chiph »

HWR_14 wrote: post #129
chiph wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Trains are actually pretty safe, but I wouldn't leave a pricey item out where someone could take it. So far as locking your stateroom door - I'd do that at night just to keep curious teens who are exploring the train out.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#163

Post by notpushkin »

snvzz wrote: post #10

Add some desks and computers, and you've got a mobile office. Employees can hop in/out on stations to start/end their shifts. /s

This would actually make a cool coworking space.

In Moscow, there's a city train line called MCC (Moscow Central Circle) which you can hop on for around $1 and just sit there all day. There are power sockets and Wi-Fi, and on stations there are vending machines with snacks and coffee. It's cozy and helps concentrate on things (for me at least).

For the train geeks: the trains used there are a regional version of Siemens Desiro, called Lastochka which is Russian for the bird swallow.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#164

Post by chiph »

Kon-Peki wrote: post #63
chiph wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

They've been running the Siemens Charger locomotives for a little while, and are phasing out the GE Genesis locomotives (which are at end-of-life) as new Chargers are delivered.

The new trainsets are the Siemens Venture cars. Brightline in Florida is already running a version of them - their cars are set up for high platforms only (all their stations have high platforms). The Amtrak cars will work with both high & low platforms, as the older stations on their network still have low platforms (passengers need to step up into the cars)

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/first-look...

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#165

Post by don_albrecht »

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…

I never wanted one to go anywhere, I've always wanted one for a tiny house / social space on my property. They always struck me as a perfect option for a unique cabin. I know there are old rail car hotels, but I've never seen one that epitomizes the pullman luxury.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#166

Post by mschuster91 »

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…

> Amtrak then has a whole schedule of fees they will charge you, from $4.09 per mile, overnight parking, fresh & wastewater servicing, transponder tags, and parking fees.

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

Probably same situation as in Europe, they're legally mandated to give access to people and companies to their service under FRAND conditions. If you're interested, the fee tables are for nets and stations [0][1].

[0] https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/geschaefte/infrastruktur/bah...

[1] https://fahrweg.dbnetze.com/fahrweg-de/kunden/leistungen/tra...

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#167

Post by chiph »

gwbas1c wrote: post #78
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…

How does this compare to traveling in a chauffeured and staffed RV? (The kind of thing that rock stars or movie stars might do.)

You have more room, mostly. A Prevost bus conversion is 45 feet long while a railcar is 80-ish feet long (less a few feet for the vestibule and/or rear platform). The rail car is wider, except when you park your bus and put the slide-outs out.

Of course, travel options are significantly broader with an RV since paved roads go everywhere. However you can't take an RV into some cities in the northeast - I know that Washington DC and Baltimore have banned them from their streets. Whereas Amtrak takes you right into the city center.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#168

Post by TecoAndJix »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #159
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…

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?

Not the same, but I'm up the road from the Strasburg Railroad and they have some fancy cars you can dine in. I would love something like that from Lancaster to Philly or Philly to NYC https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/

Fun local news fact: someone left their excavator on the tracks and one of the locomotives crashed into it Wednesday !

https://www.wgal.com/article/train-crash-at-strasburg-railro...

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#169

Post by chiph »

adriand wrote: post #161
fabioborellini wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Railroad companies having cab cars in Europe do sometimes run them in the middle of trains. It is not impossible, it just voids the benefits of having a cab car for the particular train and schedule. Sometimes it is acceptable in the greater scheme of scheduling and planning. One example that comes to my mind is prisoner transports. I have seen a prisoner car (which cannot be passed through by passengers or crew, it…

I feel like for people with the means to have one of these, having the plebeians pass through your car is a feature, not a bug.

I shall have to acquire a smoking jacket, a monocle, and a brandy snifter for those occasions. ;)

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#170

Post by Doxin »

t0mas88 wrote: post #140
Doxin wrote: post #139

Earlier 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.

While it isn't ordinary operating procedure, it's not exactly one-off either. It has happened a couple times already. At least once in combination with a historic diesel train as well.
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