I recall seeing some documentary about the hstory of train travel in which it was said that some ultra-wealthy types would have a private car which they could attach to a train in order travel around the country.
Let’s say you’re a wealthy, but eccentric, type who has his own locomotive and private car. Would it be possible to use public tracks to travel on?
I’m guessing no.
I’m guessing yes. Most of the trains running are private in that they’re owned by corporations and not some government body.
Are there public tracks, or is this a hypothetical question?
You’d have to get the permission of the owner of the tracks. Very little of the total track miles in the US are owned by the public – they’re owned by the big freight railroads and small regional ones. Even the heavily used tracks for passenger rail, like between New York and Washington, are owned by private (well, publicly held, but not “public” in the sense of government) railroads – AmTrak leases those lines for their scheduled service.
On most rail lines actually owned by the public – say, subways or NJ Transit’s lines off the main line, they would only give you permission if it were politically advantageous for them to do so. They wouldn’t allow you to do if if you were Michael Megabucks looking for a more comfortable commute, but if you ran a “kids against cancer” train for sick children you might have a shot.
As for the private ones, I’m sure they’d lease you some rights of way for the right price. I have a friend who collects old trains (yes, actual trains) and he sometimes leases some times to take them out in Connecticut. I’m sure if he wanted to do it frequently or initiate scheduled service he’d have more problems, but an occasional trip isn’t a big deal as long as he invites the guys in charge out on the trip.
Obviously, I assumed all tracks are public for some reason. In retrospect, I figure they are owned by the railroad companies.
Does Amtrak pay for the use of said tracks?
:smack:
although people in Sherlock Holmes novels always no difficulty in procuring a ‘special’ when they’ve missed the regular train the idea has some objections. Timetables don’t leave much ‘dead’ space into which an unscheduled train could be slotted and you might spend a lot time waiting for the signals to switch in your favour.
I’d guess no - specifically about the locomotive - but would bet these people would know for sure.
http://www.aaprco.com/Cars/car_name_index.html
These guys charter various railcars for private use around the country.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that some rail companies will sell space on their trains
It appears Amtrak allows it but doesn’t like it.
http://www.unitedrail.org/documents/200205pv.html
Here’s a link…
Private cars or a set of cars periodically sell space by subscription for rail trips to certain predetermined destinations. The cars are moved over private tracks by either the railroad, or as part of a regulart scheculed train.
Several rail road clubs own and operate steam locomotives and run on the private tracks by special arrangemenst.
A rich man has a private car
The poor man take the train
A hobo walks the railroad track
But gets there jus the same.
As usual, doing this mostly from memory, so I apologize in advance for any slight technical errors.
As spingears said, there are numerous privately-owned passenger railroad cars in the US. An annual convention of the Association of Private Car Owners usually brings a couple dozen or so together in one US city or another each year. I saw and photographed maybe nine or so in Houston for the 2004 Super Bowl. Many are former executive cars built for use by officials of the railroads that owned them and date to the so-called “heavyweight” era of the '20s and '30s. Others have been modified from streamline-era stock of the '40s and '50s. Few are owned by plutocrats; mostly just by moderately well-off individuals or small consortiums of railfans, and many if not most are available for charter, which helps defray the fairly high maintenance costs
Amtrak, somewhat begrudgingly from all reports, will haul such cars on most of its routes for a hefty fee, either on scheduled trains or special charters. IIRC, the cars must be compatible with Amtrak’s Head-end Power (HEP) electrical system, and must be inspected and certified for normal passenger-train speeds (up to 79 mph). This actually rules out transport on most Northeast corridor trains as the speed limit there is considerably higher.
These cars normally would not be transported with passengers aboard scheduled freight trains as there would be no power souce available, and because the slack action effects would be brutal.
Complete privately-owned trains are another matter entirely and are quite rare. Examples include the Ringling Bros. and Clyde Beatty circus trains, a large set of cars used by the Union Pacific Railroad for excursions behind its two remaining steam locomotives, a few sets owned by railfan groups and a few superluxury cruise trains such as the American-European Orient Express. Most of the private trains that exist do not operate their own locomotives as a) these are hideously expensive to maintain; b) they may not be compatible with the signalling system in use on a given route and c) the host railroad prefers to use its own power as there is less of a chance of breakdown snarling traffic on the route. Even then, some freight routes are simply off-limits to private passenger runs due to lack of capacity.
Lastly, no matter what the situation, there must be an engineer (driver) aboard who is qualified to operate on the specific district (usually a 100-150-mile segment) over which the private train is being operated.
Hope this was of interest.
All very interesting. Thanks.
I had no idea this was still a viable thing.
I have never been on a train, but have always wanted to.
Actually, Amtrak does own most of the track in the Northeast Corridor (Washington-Boston):
(The sections of the NEC not owned by Amtrak are owned by the other agencies listed above, so the entire NEC trackage is “publicly-owned”.)
The above link is from Wikipedia (not always a reliable source), but here is a statement from a 2001 Congressional hearing stating that:
It’s precisely because Amtrak owns most of the Northeast Corridor that long-distance passenger trains there don’t have to play second fiddle to freight trains as in most of the rest of the US.
A couple of years ago the Washington Post was having one of those live-chat things with the man in charge of Amtrak. I asked if Amtrak would be better off if it actually owned all the rails it used, not just the ones in the Northeast Corridor. He said that it wouldn’t, but I can’t remember his reasoning.
In Germany, railways have been run by a government agency until some ten years ago (and in some European countries, they still are - one example is Italy IIRC). Then this agency was transformed into a joint-stock company, Deutsche Bahn, of which the federal government still holds all shares - there are plans for privatizing it by selling shares on the market, but they’re postponed regularly; I think the current schedule is for 2007. This company owns almost all rail tracks in Germany, although there are a few private companies around; Deutsche Bahn also runs almost all trains on those tracks, although more recently, legislation that intends to liberalize the transportation business forces DB to let competitors use the tracks for scheduled service in exchange for cash. The trend seems to be that in a few years, the monopoly in the German railway business that has existed since 1924, when the various regional railway agencies were merged into the Reichsbahn, will end.
DB will also allow private clubs of railway aficionados, who own old steam engines for nostalgia, to use the tracks for non-scheduled service when they wish to have a ride on their old engines. It’s mostly a matter of negotiations, I assume.
Of course the entire railway system in Europe is different from the American one. In Europe, it is very common for passengers to use trains for travel, even on long distances, since passenger service is fast and comfortable and practically every town has a station.
I’ve seen these private cars tacked onto the rear end of freight trains, always on the rear end. Other than that, I don’t know anything about them.
I thought it was a strange way to travel today. I guess if you get tacked onto the rear end of a coast-to-coast express or something, but switching trains is a slow and noisy process (from what I can gather from the few hours of switching that goes on near here every night…) and if you could afford it it seems like air travel or a “Madden Bus” would be a lot more practical.