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Privately-Owned Rail Cars

amtrak.com

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Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#51

Post by matthewwolfe »

jonnybgood wrote: post #41
nordsieck wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is my "if I won the lottery" dream. Could you explain a bit more about why you would want this? This seems strictly inferior to buying a box truck and converting it for "van life".

A private rail car with your own chef and other luxury amenities is inferior to a truck with a bed in it that you have to drive yourself?

I think the comparison being made is why restrict yourself to a rail line when you can buy a huge bus with a driver and private chef and have them drive you anywhere you want.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#52

Post by chrisco255 »

jesuscript wrote: post #38
nordsieck wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is my "if I won the lottery" dream. Could you explain a bit more about why you would want this? This seems strictly inferior to buying a box truck and converting it for "van life".

There’s inherent safety built into this dream. Van life in the woods sounds dangerous. Your train is traveling at a certain speed at all times on a route that’s operated by professionals. You are also not utterly alone and there is a company that can provide some customer support. You’ll never have to make a stop at a shady motel or gas station. Van life is a first class ticket to becoming a tidbit in serial killers…

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 life is not that dramatic.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#53

Post by ajaimk »

TigeriusKirk wrote: post #4
allthecybers wrote: post #2

We’ve had the tiny houses, shipping container homes, then the van life or schoolie (school bus as a home) trend, al of which were clever interpretations on what a home actually is. I’m sure some enterprising YouTuber/lifestyle blogger could get us started on the private train car home era. I’m here for it.

I bet MrBeast could pull off a "I paid a guy $100,000 to spend a month in a private train car" or something.

Amtrak does this for free - check out the Writer's Residency Program

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#55

Post by worthless-trash »

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…

It made my day that this still happens, and that it exists.. so very cool.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#56

Post by thepasswordis »

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…

This seems unbelievably expensive. How is this funded?

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#57

Post by Animats »

esaym wrote: post #46

To add more info.... Sometime around 2018 or so, I was looking at renting a private car. Prices were all over the place, from $2k (but you had to provide your own chef (or something like that)) to $5k (chef included) for what I'd consider decent accommodations. I was wanting something big enough to fit 5-10 people to have a hackathon. There were several companies that offered this service and all of them were towed b…

Amtrak wanted to end their private car services[1], but instead, just raised the price. There used to be "Private Varnish" magazine, but it's been discontinued.[2]

At one time, it was quite cheap to park a private railroad car at many downtown passenger railroad stations, because they were way underutilized and had much empty track. Not so much any more.

[1] https://www.trainsandtravel.com/2018/03/28/edict-amtrak-wont...

[2] https://www.aaprco.com/

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#58

Post by QuarterReptile »

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…

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.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#59

Post by polio »

matthewwolfe wrote: post #51
jonnybgood wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A private rail car with your own chef and other luxury amenities is inferior to a truck with a bed in it that you have to drive yourself?

I think the comparison being made is why restrict yourself to a rail line when you can buy a huge bus with a driver and private chef and have them drive you anywhere you want.

It really isn't about the destination. If it were, one would just fly. To me, the elegance of rail is in its ability to travel through more secluded areas, to do so quietly, and to afford a person enough space to kick back without the need for a seatbelt.

Re: Privately-Owned Rail Cars

#60

Post by zachlatta »

thepasswordis wrote: post #56
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…

This seems unbelievably expensive. How is this funded?

We had a very generous group of donors make this once-in-a-lifetime event possible and entirely free for every teenager on board.

The team also really made it happen. It was incredibly difficult to organize, and every person involved went far above and beyond any normal expectation to make the Zephyr so special.

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