4 ms·

so how do you get a privately owned train car and get it to the tracks or etc? from this page it sounds like you own it but Amtrak keeps it parked at their swi

so how do you get a privately owned train car and get it to the tracks or etc? from this page it sounds like you own it but Amtrak keeps it parked at their switching stations or something

mhalle 1y ago
Private collectors offer them for charter. https://www.aaprco.com/ https://www.aaprco.com/
- AnimalMuppet 1y ago
  They do. But I didn't see anything on there about cost. Does anyone know, even rough numbers?
  - bombcar 1y ago
    See the other posts but realistically it’s in the tens of thousands. Which considering how many can travel in one might not be terribly expensive.
    - Symbiote 1y ago
      Football supporters in England sometimes charter whole trains to see particular matches. I've only seen one of these trains once, and it was an ordinary train. I've no idea what the cost would be.
  - Stevvo 1y ago
    It's really whatever you want to pay. i.e. You can get anything from rusted scrap metal up to extravagant luxury.
    - y-curious 1y ago
      How much is a bare minimum safety rusted piece of crap? Something tells me you can't win over Amtrak pricing, sadly
      - bluGill 1y ago
        They might be given away or for scrap value. Of course it won't meet the minimun standards next year so expect $200k to restore again)
        ghaff 1y ago
        Quite a while back I drove a friend of mine from SF to a railcar museum because he wanted to get a tour of railcars from a movie. The secretary of the club that ran the museum told us that they wouldn't have been able to transport the car from the location where it was originally located to the museum today.
        bluGill 1y ago
        There are a lot of RR cars around the country that are not movable for various reasons. Many of them because while the car could be moved, the tracks don't exist. Others because the running gear is worn out. There is still hope for those cars. If you want to pay for it a ridding company can transport anything from anywhere to anywhere - they will get the correct permits and then load it on a trailer - this is easiest and most common, but not cheap. In some cases you can get an override from the RR to tow it - they can put new wheels under it quick enough, and then put it at the end of the train on a slow month (which is to say they will avoid their busy routes were something breaking would cause problems), again not cheap, but possible and sometimes the RR will subsides the cost if the car has historic value. If there are tracks you can restore it where it is and then the RRs will take it again.
terminalshort 1y ago
The companies that make train cars have a way to do this, so you probably just pay them to do it as part of the price you pay them to make you train car.
cesaref 1y ago
>so how do you get a privately owned train car and get it to the tracks or etc? I think you wait in a remote bit of Nevada for a train to pass, and trigger a rock fall which causes the driver to slam on the brakes and bring the train to a stop just short of the rockfall. Then, you and your posse jump out from behind some rocks and fire your revolvers in the air, and the driver sticks his hands up. There's much celebration, and back slapping as you discover the train also happens to have a massive amount of gold bullion on board. The rest is a bit blurry, can't remember seeing what you then do, but it probably involves filing down the serial numbers on the frame or something like that?
- jvm___ 1y ago
  The bad guys are driving their train when a cop train shows up in the mirrors behind their train. Cop walks up to the window and asks for their license and registration please. Another shootout occurs followed by a multi-track multi-train police chase, but everyone needs to stay on their respective train tracks.
  - Nevermark 1y ago
    Then things go south. I mean really south, heading to the Mexican border. On a little platform on wheels, with a see-saw type manual propulsion. And the police are waving their billy clubs and gaining on you!
  - Ichthypresbyter 1y ago
    >a cop train https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e6/55/f9/e655f9c6ae124664ad5cd6e4fc2f33fe.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e6/55/f9/e655f9c6ae124664ad5c...
    - masfuerte 1y ago
      That looked very British. Apparently it was made for an advert for a 1980s high speed train. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_37 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_37
- 1y ago
LeifCarrotson 1y ago
Check in with the association of private railcar owners: https://www.aaprco.com/ https://www.aaprco.com/ There was some discussion on the process here a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19505897 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19505897 written shortly after Amtrak complained "These operations caused significant operational distraction, failed to capture fully allocated profitable margins". It's not an easy process.
- nemomarx 1y ago
  Very interesting! I guess it would be unpopular for them to stop?
- runamuck 1y ago
  Any idea how much it costs to buy your own private train car?
  - throwup238 1y ago
    A disused car is $100-200k depending on condition, and it’d probably cost about as much to refurbish into use. An off the shelf fully outfitted luxury car can cost a million or more. Operating, maintenance, and storage costs dwarf the capital costs within a few years so unless it’s rusting in a backyard, the expensive part is using it rather than buying one. Storage alone costs $30k-50k a year.
    - bombcar 1y ago
      You can get rail cars for free every once in a while the problem is you have to then pay to transport it to someplace you can store it. But usually there’s a rail club somewhere nearby that would love to have an addition to the collection if you’re paying to make it nice and usable.
bluGill 1y ago
You keep it on tracks, either your own private siding, or rent from a railroad. When you want to go you arrang with the railroad to pick it up. Railroads do this all the time - they might or might not own the cars freight is going on either way they drop it off at your siding and pick it up latter. you need to plan a head though to fit their other scheduldes. There are big costs if you are not ready when the train arrives. (that is no asking them to wait while you store groceries)

so how do you get a privately owned train car and get it to the tracks or etc? from this page it sounds like you own it but Amtrak keeps it parked at their switching stations or something

mhalle 1y ago

Private collectors offer them for charter. https://www.aaprco.com/ https://www.aaprco.com/

AnimalMuppet 1y ago
They do. But I didn't see anything on there about cost. Does anyone know, even rough numbers?
- bombcar 1y ago
  See the other posts but realistically it’s in the tens of thousands. Which considering how many can travel in one might not be terribly expensive.
  - Symbiote 1y ago
    Football supporters in England sometimes charter whole trains to see particular matches. I've only seen one of these trains once, and it was an ordinary train. I've no idea what the cost would be.
- Stevvo 1y ago
  It's really whatever you want to pay. i.e. You can get anything from rusted scrap metal up to extravagant luxury.
  - y-curious 1y ago
    How much is a bare minimum safety rusted piece of crap? Something tells me you can't win over Amtrak pricing, sadly
    - bluGill 1y ago
      They might be given away or for scrap value. Of course it won't meet the minimun standards next year so expect $200k to restore again)
      - ghaff 1y ago
        Quite a while back I drove a friend of mine from SF to a railcar museum because he wanted to get a tour of railcars from a movie. The secretary of the club that ran the museum told us that they wouldn't have been able to transport the car from the location where it was originally located to the museum today.
        bluGill 1y ago
        There are a lot of RR cars around the country that are not movable for various reasons. Many of them because while the car could be moved, the tracks don't exist. Others because the running gear is worn out. There is still hope for those cars. If you want to pay for it a ridding company can transport anything from anywhere to anywhere - they will get the correct permits and then load it on a trailer - this is easiest and most common, but not cheap. In some cases you can get an override from the RR to tow it - they can put new wheels under it quick enough, and then put it at the end of the train on a slow month (which is to say they will avoid their busy routes were something breaking would cause problems), again not cheap, but possible and sometimes the RR will subsides the cost if the car has historic value. If there are tracks you can restore it where it is and then the RRs will take it again.

terminalshort 1y ago

The companies that make train cars have a way to do this, so you probably just pay them to do it as part of the price you pay them to make you train car.

cesaref 1y ago

>so how do you get a privately owned train car and get it to the tracks or etc? I think you wait in a remote bit of Nevada for a train to pass, and trigger a rock fall which causes the driver to slam on the brakes and bring the train to a stop just short of the rockfall. Then, you and your posse jump out from behind some rocks and fire your revolvers in the air, and the driver sticks his hands up. There's much celebration, and back slapping as you discover the train also happens to have a massive amount of gold bullion on board. The rest is a bit blurry, can't remember seeing what you then do, but it probably involves filing down the serial numbers on the frame or something like that?

jvm___ 1y ago
The bad guys are driving their train when a cop train shows up in the mirrors behind their train. Cop walks up to the window and asks for their license and registration please. Another shootout occurs followed by a multi-track multi-train police chase, but everyone needs to stay on their respective train tracks.
- Nevermark 1y ago
  Then things go south. I mean really south, heading to the Mexican border. On a little platform on wheels, with a see-saw type manual propulsion. And the police are waving their billy clubs and gaining on you!
- Ichthypresbyter 1y ago
  >a cop train https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e6/55/f9/e655f9c6ae124664ad5cd6e4fc2f33fe.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e6/55/f9/e655f9c6ae124664ad5c...
  - masfuerte 1y ago
    That looked very British. Apparently it was made for an advert for a 1980s high speed train. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_37 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_37
1y ago

LeifCarrotson 1y ago

Check in with the association of private railcar owners: https://www.aaprco.com/ https://www.aaprco.com/ There was some discussion on the process here a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19505897 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19505897 written shortly after Amtrak complained "These operations caused significant operational distraction, failed to capture fully allocated profitable margins". It's not an easy process.

nemomarx 1y ago
Very interesting! I guess it would be unpopular for them to stop?
runamuck 1y ago
Any idea how much it costs to buy your own private train car?
- throwup238 1y ago
  A disused car is $100-200k depending on condition, and it’d probably cost about as much to refurbish into use. An off the shelf fully outfitted luxury car can cost a million or more. Operating, maintenance, and storage costs dwarf the capital costs within a few years so unless it’s rusting in a backyard, the expensive part is using it rather than buying one. Storage alone costs $30k-50k a year.
  - bombcar 1y ago
    You can get rail cars for free every once in a while the problem is you have to then pay to transport it to someplace you can store it. But usually there’s a rail club somewhere nearby that would love to have an addition to the collection if you’re paying to make it nice and usable.

bluGill 1y ago

You keep it on tracks, either your own private siding, or rent from a railroad. When you want to go you arrang with the railroad to pick it up. Railroads do this all the time - they might or might not own the cars freight is going on either way they drop it off at your siding and pick it up latter. you need to plan a head though to fit their other scheduldes. There are big costs if you are not ready when the train arrives. (that is no asking them to wait while you store groceries)