OT: Question for people with railroad knowledge?

Not to throw a wet blanket on your idea but it's BIG bucks. Not for the equipment, but for the insurance and operating costs.

Similar to your idea, there was a private "Dinner Train" operation here (as there are in many cities). They ran two trips a day, 6 days a week, approximately 80-100 people each trip, at a cost of between $40 and $75 per person. (Run the numbers). The husband of the operator of the train owned the railroad ! so her costs were minimized that way. After about five years she had to give it up and sell off the equipment because she was losing too much money.

Don

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With money, anything is possible, but highly impractical.

A person with interests along you line was Glen Monhardt (deceased). Glen owned an FP7, F7B, F7, two BL2s (all of these five were painted in IC colors, but lettered for I believe the Janesville and Southwestern), and an E3 (painted in ACL).

Glen also worked in the business as a Service Technical Engineer for EMD, and owned a side business called Railway Equipment, which rebuilds EMD components such as water pumps, rocker arm assemblies etc. He had the experience to be able to do a lot of his own restoration. Some folks restore cars, Glen restored locomotives.

At one time, Glen leased the locomotives to I believe the Janesville and Southeastern, which ran down into Chicago on Metra trackage rights south of Fox Lake. His locomotives used to tie up at Clearing yard. The money that he made on the lease covered the payments on the loan to buy the beast. Once Wisconsin and Southern bought them out, that was the end of the lease. W&S wasn't interested.

Glen even owned the roundhouse in Janesville WI to house the beasts (and restore them), and I believe about 200 ft. of trackage. Near as I can tell, since his estate has been sold off, the Fs and the BL2s are rusting to the rails up at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay. I'm not sure where the E3 went.

There are also numerous individuals and groups that own private cars. If you intend to run those cars on major railroads, they typically move on Amtrak trains, which means they have to be HEP compatible, pass all applicable FRA inspections, and I believe need to be certified for at least 90 MPH operation.

Playing with the 1:1 scale stuff gets very expensive.

regards, Jerry

There is a website

which has alot of railroad equipment for sale. A serviceable locomotive and a couple passenger cars to form a little party train would easily be 100k and up. Not including trackage rights, fuel.

If you wanted to do it on a budget, how about buying a "stationary" car. Get a old piece of passenger equipment for $10k-40k. Spend the extra ona stainless steel body, less future maintenence. Purchase an abandoned siding somewhere, rebuild the interior, hook it up to local utilities and hold your parties there.

Could I recommend a nice suspended LGB circle of track hung from the ceiling for ambiance?

Yeah, especially when you figure they get four gallons to the mile in fuel alone....never mind if it needs repairs.

There is an organization of owners of private RR cars. They have a website. Spend a few minutes with Google and find them. They may have some answers for you.

Last I heard, Amtrak would haul any certified car on almost any of their trains (not Acela) for 18 fares. Freight RRs won't touch it with a ten foot pole - liability issues. You still need to pay switching fees and rent on a siding where you are going, as well as own or rent one of your own at home. You will need to pay an attendant and regular maintenance,

- once you have brought the car up to certifiable standards.

I fear it is like J.P. Morgan once said when asked about the cost of a yacht. "If you have to ask - you can't afford it"!

Regards,

Andrew S. Miller

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Ethan wrote:

Crimeny, Ethan, you can buy your own RAILROAD. There are hundreds of shortlines operating in the US. Many serve only a single industry, and in some cases a single customer. If that industry/customer doesn't do well, then neither does the shortline and they can often be had a firesale prices.

Rader Rail in Fort Morgan Colorado will build you any kind of luxo car that you want.

Here's a privately owned GP9:

Marc

Then get a rumble/click/shaker setup like the California Railroad Museum has on a few cars . . . and some speakers to have crossing bells doppler past outside. (a favorite childhood memory)

Several good comments have already been made. I will add that private parties do buy locomotives. Looking around on the web some of them are rusting away from lack of funds. But if you had one running, operating it over other people's track is really not financially feasible. If you buy a passenger car and have it stuck on the back of an Amtrak train or a first class tourist train that would probably be much better.

The American Association of Private Railcar Owners

Good comments from the group, but I wish to add:

You CAN often hire a private car for a party. A group I know of hires the Silver Lariat for a trip from Los Angeles to San Diego every year. Full service bar and gourmet breakfast (on the way down) and dinner (on the way back) included.

Keep in mind that even this is not cheap. The group I know of charges $150 a ticket and breaks even around at around 35 tickets.

But WOW! what fun!

I know that there are lots of pirvate car operaters around the country that do a similar service.

No, it is not quite the same as owning your own railroad or your own train. One of my "if I were fabously wealthy" plans is to have a house (read that castle) on a couple of square miles of land, complete with a steam railroad connecting it to the highway. Naturally, there would be some kind of access road for me to take the Duesenberg out for a spin down to the 7-11 for a six pack, but the major entry for visiters would be by train. Uninvited guests get the hand car!

Regards,

DAve

[ Snip ]

It's been done. It was called an "Estate Railway."

Do a Google search on Duffield Bank and Eaton, and/or Sir Arthur Heywood.

-- Bill Kaiser snipped-for-privacy@mtholyoke.edu

There are three ways to do a job: good, cheap, and quick. You can have any two. A good, cheap job won't be quick. A good, quick job won't be cheap. A cheap, quick job won't be good.

Well I was running across websites with locomotives and cars for sale, that is what spawned the idea. But what I was mostly curious to is how much trackage rights would cost? How much would Norfolk Southern want to use their tracks?

That just isn't the same :-) I'm in Norfolk Virginia -- there used to be a resturant that was made out of old rail cars I believe in Virginia Beach, but it is gone. I am just mostly curious to if people have private trains. The replies to this have prooved that people do own their own cars and a few own locomotives. Are they allowed (upon paying) to use any freight route across the country??

There used to be a model railroad shop in one of the malls that dissapeared. They had (special order) these metal parts that could be used to mount a train around the top of a room. Unfortunately it was very expensive -- to the tune of $200 or so per 2 or 3' section. It was neat stuff.

Reading this newsgroup is going to make me break out my good old Lionel trains.

My Railscope still has nothing on owning a real locomotive! :-)

Much thanks for all the replies!

Another topic I stumbled across reminded me of that made for TV movie I saw a long time ago, "End of the Line" .... Managed to pick up a laserdisc of the movie. Too funny. Will probably convert it to DVD so it is easier to play.

Any recommendations for places to find framable photos of DIESEL locomotives? Unfortunately most of the stuff I find is always steam. My friend who helped at a museum to restore a steeam engine says they have more character, but I'm more of a fan of diesel locomotives.

Thanks again for all of the replies! Definitly some interesting stuff.

Not as much as the liability insurance would cost, which would kill the idea outright, even if NS were (by some miracle) to say yes to the idea.

No... the carrier has a right to accept or refuse the proposal. In today's business climate, you could expect to hear far more no's than yes's. See above for one big reason why...

You wouldn't hear any yes's for ANY price from any freight railroad. Amtrak will pull you though. You must pay for an inspection to insure your cars are rail ready. This would be several thousand dollars if they were new equipment in good condiction. More for older ones.. About 5 years ago, I knew the pull rates and it was $750 hook up fee and $2 a mile after that.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Sorry I don't know details, but I have read some Saudi sheik bought one of the Burlington Zephyrs a couple decades or more back, and had it shipped over there -- complete!

Paul - "The CB&Q Guy"

Yep. He has the "god" train, the counterpart of the "goddess" train at Illinois Railway Museum (cars named Vesta, Juno, Ceres...what was the 4th?). I don't know who the god cars were named for. I believe also the god train has an E5 on the point, the only other in the world remaining.

Question: Would Saudi law permit the god names to remain on the cars since they belong to another non-Muslim religion? Would it come under historical value? Or would it be a moot point since almost no one would see, nor understand the writing? I never thought about that until now.

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"