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 diesel generator too), door control/communication wiring, and to upgrade the braking system.<p>Once you have your car and you have passed your annual inspection, you will need somewhere to park it, which usually means finding a short-line railroad or commercial business with a siding near you, and paying them a fee. Getting the car from there to the nearest Amtrak station will require you to hire a locomotive with crew (some tracks require a second car coupled to the locomotive so crossings & signals work correctly). 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.<p>You will want to hire a chef to prepare your meals and perhaps also a steward to serve the meals, make drinks, and take care of the staterooms. I'm not sure if they need to belong to the union since they would be your employees, not the railroads (but probably).<p>For the less than 100 private cars in operation in America, why does Amtrak even offer this service? 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. 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.<p>Here's what a restored Pullman car can look like: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdroQ4JqlYQ" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdroQ4JqlYQ</a>
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.<p>Basically, there are hobbyists who buy and upgrade these cars, and try to break even on chartering trips on them. They’re clearly never happier than coming along for the journey (you need an official liaison on board anyway to interface with Amtrak staff) and fixing stuff along the way.<p><a href="http://www.nyc-3.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.nyc-3.com/</a>
Some of you might be interested in The Hacker Zephyr, a cross-country train hackathon with 42 teenagers from across the world.<p>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.<p>Short documentary: <a href="https://youtu.be/2BID8_pGuqA" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/2BID8_pGuqA</a><p>Planning documents and finances are open source at <a href="https://github.com/hackclub/the-hacker-zephyr" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/hackclub/the-hacker-zephyr</a>
In germany, the privatisation and segmentation of the railway company has created many "interface points" where private entities can rent vehicles or use the tracks. This resulted in a vast amount of companies specializing in engine renting or vehicle transport, like Captrain/ITL or MRCE. The diversity in companies results in a big variety of color schemes.<p>Train museums use these possibilities to run extraordinary trains [1]. Rarely you can see them as replacement trains in regular service[2].<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMZAAdP431o" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMZAAdP431o</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YqsIzKR3Uc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YqsIzKR3Uc</a>
There are an increasing number of ultra-deluxe trains in Japan that aim to replicate the experience. Seven Stars is the original:<p><a href="https://www.cruisetrain-sevenstars.jp/english/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cruisetrain-sevenstars.jp/english/</a><p>Prices start at $4500 per person twin sharing for 4 nights, so not exactly cheap, but still a few orders of magnitude less than kitting out your own. Plus it's Japan, so you get a modern train, incredible service and everything runs like clockwork, none of those being terms you'd use to describe Amtrak.<p>Fun facts: you're required to wear a tuxedo to dinner, and despite the price tag, the train is <i>enormously</i> popular and they need to use a lottery system to select who gets to ride.
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.<p>I’m sure some enterprising YouTuber/lifestyle blogger could get us started on the private train car home era. I’m here for it.
You should see how impressive some of the luxury trains have gotten. Japan has a couple of them that are particularly luxurious. And while these aren't owned by individuals, they're indicative of what you could own.<p><a href="https://www.luxurytrainclub.com/trains/seven-stars-kyushu/" rel="nofollow">https://www.luxurytrainclub.com/trains/seven-stars-kyushu/</a><p><a href="https://www.jreast.co.jp/shiki-shima/en/" rel="nofollow">https://www.jreast.co.jp/shiki-shima/en/</a>
I once was on an Amtrak train that was delayed by 6 hours because of this crap. It started with a 2 hour delay while they were hooking up someone's private car, and missed its timeslots on the rest of the route, then the crew timed out, and the delays snowballed (and the train had a skeleton crew for the rest of the trip).<p>A few years ago, they banned this practice because of these types of issues. If they're reintroducing it, get ready for more delays and more completely unreliable Amtrak service.
<p><pre><code> Effective 3/16/20 move requests will not be accepted via fax. Email your completed form to the Special Moves Team at specialmoves@amtrak.com.
</code></pre>
aw :(
To add more info....<p>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 behind amtrak. But right in the middle of trying to figure all this out, amtrak announced some "changes" and that drove the cost up a bit and I think several of these companies simply closed shop or greatly reduced their service area so I dropped the idea. Splitting the charges between 5 or 10 people seemed like a fun idea though.
Conditions for Movement of Privately Owned Railroad Cars on Amtrak:<p><a href="https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/privatecars/Amtrak-Conditions-for-Movement-of-Private-Railroad-Cars-010121.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/p...</a>
There is a surprising number of big name entertainers who are afraid of flying, and either have their own rail cars, or rent them.<p>You will occasionally see them parked on the siding by Symphony Park when they're playing Las Vegas.
Safety manual, in case anyone else is interested: <a href="https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/privatecars/Amtrak-Private-Car-Safety-Manual-050719.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/p...</a>
Looking at the charter options, this could be an interesting american cabaret and folk music festival venue concept. Two or three nights via train, accoustic sets by performers, maybe configure couple of performance cars into the train then split performances over different cars at different times, so you can catch them in one of the cars and it spreads the audience over the train. Night stops in places with motels or camping to handle sleeping arrangements.<p>Just found some routes through the rockies, from moab to denver: <a href="https://www.rockymountaineer.com/routes_destinations" rel="nofollow">https://www.rockymountaineer.com/routes_destinations</a> , but a southwest one would be amazing.<p>Economics are running a cruise, but over land on a train, with some camping and motel options to scale it. Hmm...
Anyone 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
My great grandfather was an executive with some Canadian railroad company and I remember hearing about how my dad would get rides in his grandfather's private car attached to trains going to and from boarding school.
There was a great story a few years ago on Bloomberg that discussed purchasing your own rail car. [0].<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-25/can-you-buy-your-own-train-here-s-what-it-takes" rel="nofollow">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-25/can-you-b...</a>
Add some desks and computers, and you've got a mobile office.<p>Employees can hop in/out on stations to start/end their shifts.<p>/s
This isn't as comfortable as you might think. Most of the passenger rail in the US is old and not very smooth. Riding on Amtrak for long distances is not as nice as say, riding on high-speed rail or a local metro like Chicago. The rail cars frequently sway left and right. I say this as a proponent of trains and high speed rail.
It would be pretty cool in a "fantasy" way but seems like it would be cool if you could "live" on a train that's always moving (besides at the stops).<p>You would be comfortable in your own train car and wake up in a new place every day... terribly impractical but still seems cool, haha.