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Privately-Owned Rail Cars

amtrak.com

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Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#231

Post by paledot »

DonHopkins wrote: post #210
state_less wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been riding the Indian rail system the last few weeks and generally don’t mind the other folks in the car. The thing that does get my goat is folks blasting audio out of their devices. Most folks are fine, but it it only takes a few to spoil the fun. Rail is nice here in that it’s often electric, you don’t need to focus on the road and there is more room to move around than on a plane or a car.

How long have you been traveling on trains with your goat? How does he enjoy it, as long as folks aren't irritating him by blasting audio?

It's been great, but the wolf and chickens can be a pain sometimes when you have to go to the bathroom in the next car.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#232

Post by cultofmetatron »

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…

> Personally I wonder why Amtrak doesn't offer a "Presidential" fare

they should call it "railforce one"

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#233

Post by DonHopkins »

paledot wrote: post #231
DonHopkins wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long have you been traveling on trains with your goat? How does he enjoy it, as long as folks aren't irritating him by blasting audio?

It's been great, but the wolf and chickens can be a pain sometimes when you have to go to the bathroom in the next car.

Is it as bad as what happens when you mix two birds and a dog on a train?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m6aomlQLjE

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#234

Post by UIUC_06 »

don_albrecht wrote: post #165
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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Station_(restaurant)

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#235

Post by wahern »

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…

> The new trainsets that Amtrak just ordered from Siemens Mobility come with cab cars, so the crew can use that to control the train and not be out in the weather

So basically a caboose? Albeit more sophisticated.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#236

Post by wahern »

differentview97 wrote: post #197
IX-103 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you'll find your experience here is outdated. There are a few good tools for managing Linux systems - puppeteer is one. What sorry if features are you missing? As for Samba, Gnome has good client built in to the file browser. But I'd have to ask why you're using Samba at all. There are much better network filesystems in the Linux world that don't come with all the legacy cruft and undocumented idiosyncrasies…

Samba - or to be precise MS AD is not just about files. On Linux it's limited to files and that's exactly the problem I'm talking about. On Mac it's at least able to share certificates and some basic settings now - still not ideal though. Actually with modern clouds like OneDrive it's not about files at all, I haven't seen network drives being used for a decade. It's about privileges to various resources available wi…

Unix systems were doing all of this 30 years ago. (I can almost feel all the old Sun Microsystems employees rolling their eyes.) It's literally why NFS and NIS (replaced by LDAP before Active Directory released) existed. But Unix != Linux, the popular parts of the Linux ecosystem don't cater to this, and trajectory continues to diverge away.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#237

Post by CharlesW »

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?

Since drfuchs hasn't answered yet, here's a figure from 2011:

"Not up for chartering your own car? Then perhaps you'd like to take part in an arranged tour. There are several vendors that offer trips on private varnishes. For example, Palm Leaf LLC is offering a week-long trip by train from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. While in New Orleans you can continue to use the train as your hotel, parked right in the middle of the action. The tariff? $2,995 per person for a single room, including meals while in motion."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tombarlow/2011/11/14/privately-...

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#239

Post by MandieD »

Cupertino95014 wrote: post #224
kotaKat wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've considered chartering a transit bus from my local transit authority for a birthday party before just to tool around town in for a few hours. They only want ~$600 CAD for 3 hours ($200/hr after), and you get to choose what type of bus from their fleet you want -- a 40 foot, a 60' artic, or a double decker (with routing approval). Not a bad way to do a bar crawl or otherwise.

This is actually a great idea. No need for anyone to be the designated driver, and you can go to places not within walking distance. A really enterprising transit agency (an oxymoron there) would create The Party Bus and promote the hell out of it. Rip out all the seats and put in couches. Special lighting. Use your imagination.

Nürnberg’s city transit service has a fleet of historic (“Oldtimer”) streetcars and busses that can be rented for events - here are the streetcars: https://event.vag.de/event-flotte/oldtimer-strassenbahnflott...

Edited to add: you can, of course, also rent the modern busses and streetcars. And even subway cars!

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#240

Post by Symbiote »

Cupertino95014 wrote: post #224
kotaKat wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've considered chartering a transit bus from my local transit authority for a birthday party before just to tool around town in for a few hours. They only want ~$600 CAD for 3 hours ($200/hr after), and you get to choose what type of bus from their fleet you want -- a 40 foot, a 60' artic, or a double decker (with routing approval). Not a bad way to do a bar crawl or otherwise.

This is actually a great idea. No need for anyone to be the designated driver, and you can go to places not within walking distance. A really enterprising transit agency (an oxymoron there) would create The Party Bus and promote the hell out of it. Rip out all the seats and put in couches. Special lighting. Use your imagination.

Buses like this drive around Copenhagen.

It's pretty much only young people that hire them.

https://copenhagenpartybus.dk/

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