[HN Gopher] Privately-Owned Rail Cars
___________________________________________________________________
Privately-Owned Rail Cars
Author : blueatlas
Score : 461 points
Date : 2022-11-04 00:29 UTC (22 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.amtrak.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.amtrak.com)
| AlbertCory wrote:
| A private rail car is just such over-the-top Robber Baron stuff.
|
| But let's say I have way too much money: should I
|
| 1) get a private rail car, or
|
| 2) go into space
|
| ??
|
| Answer: Why not both?
| bpodgursky wrote:
| I mean just to devil's advocate this -- _why_ is it more
| ridiculous than a private RV?
|
| Feels like something that could have been completely normalized
| in a different timeline with more common train transit.
| bombcar wrote:
| Private car is in the "less than million" range, so it's
| basically a smallish land yacht.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| Yeah, but you probably get these enormous bills you weren't
| expecting, and absolutely nothing you can do about it.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| The super-rich NEVER see a bill: they have people for that
| euroderf wrote:
| Amtrak online store: "There's a subordinate for that."
| hn_go_brrrrr wrote:
| Sounds _exactly_ like a yacht.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| LOL. At least there's _some_ market for yachts. More
| "greater fools" to take it off your hands.
|
| A railroad car -- now that has a more limited appeal.
| MasterYoda wrote:
| Does someone know if it is possible to own a private train i
| Europe and travel on the railway systems?
| smugma wrote:
| Conditions for Movement of Privately Owned Railroad Cars on
| Amtrak:
|
| https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/p...
| robswc wrote:
| 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).
|
| 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.
| ec109685 wrote:
| One step down from Contact.
| chiph wrote:
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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).
|
| 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.
|
| Here's what a restored Pullman car can look like:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdroQ4JqlYQ
| Cupertino95014 wrote:
| Thinking entrepreneurially here:
|
| Why not _lease_ a car for a month, or a year? All those
| inspection, maintenance, parking, and labor costs are rolled
| into your fee, except the railroad can handle them much better
| than you can.
|
| If it's "your" car, only people you approve of can sit in it.
| It's a rolling party!
| runarberg wrote:
| I've had similar thoughts, not as a entrepreneur, but as a
| way to squander the lottery money on one epic party, that
| starts in Seattle and ends 32 hours later in LA.
| lupire wrote:
| You've seen Snowpiercer, right?
| club_tropical wrote:
| Hope you can make this happen.
| kotaKat wrote:
| I've considered chartering a transit bus from my local
| transit authority for a birthday party before just to tool
| around town in for a few hours. They only want ~$600 CAD
| for 3 hours ($200/hr after), and you get to choose what
| type of bus from their fleet you want -- a 40 foot, a 60'
| artic, or a double decker (with routing approval). Not a
| bad way to do a bar crawl or otherwise.
| Cupertino95014 wrote:
| This is actually a great idea. No need for anyone to be
| the designated driver, and you can go to places _not_
| within walking distance.
|
| A really enterprising transit agency (an oxymoron there)
| would create The Party Bus and promote the hell out of
| it. Rip out all the seats and put in couches. Special
| lighting. Use your imagination.
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| What? Party buses are all over the place.
| h0l0cube wrote:
| > Getting the car from there to the nearest Amtrak station will
| require you to hire a locomotive with crew
|
| I know long haul battery-electric trains don't make sense [0],
| but if it's a short distance, would it be feasible to have
| inbuilt battery + engine just to get the car to the Amtrak and
| maybe as backup power?
|
| > (some tracks require a second car coupled to the locomotive
| so crossings & signals work correctly)
|
| Obviously it wouldn't obviate this technicality.
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0qcxyyllQ4
| ehnto wrote:
| I have to imagine it's a similar scenario to pilots taking
| over your vessel in certain ports and passages. The job of
| the pilot (or the Amtrak hired crew) is that they are aligned
| with the port's goals and understand their scheduling and
| rules. I can't imagine they would want a private car moving
| of it's own accord operated by the owner, so you might still
| have to hire the Amtrak crew, and they might not be willing
| to operate your personal car since crew have to be trained on
| the locomotives. I am speculating though, I have no idea.
| h0l0cube wrote:
| Good points. I guess it makes even more sense when
| considering that the crew also needs to transport
| themselves to the car from the station
| twobitshifter wrote:
| Correct, to drive the train you'd need to have an engineer
| qualified on the railroad.
| jandrese wrote:
| Would it be possible to instead buy an Amtrak car and then just
| do the interior upgrades? Seems like it would save a lot of
| work on upgrades. I have to assume that Amtrak eventually
| retires the cars at some point. Or heck, if you're rich just
| buy an unfinished car from whatever company makes Amtrak cars
| and then finish it yourself.
| rchowe wrote:
| Many of the private railcars in existence today are ex-
| Amtrak, because when Amtrak was formed on May 1, 1971, they
| assumed most of the passenger rolling stock of the railroads
| that discharged passenger service.
|
| Supposedly the biggest cost associated with refurbishing a
| car is passing the Amtrak inspection of the bogies, axles,
| and wheels -- I believe they have to be completely replaced
| at 40 years of age. When a railroad retires a car, this
| equipment may be close to end-of-life.
|
| Many freight railroads still have "office-car specials" --
| passenger equipment for the executives to use. Those would
| probably be the easiest to get up to Amtrak specs.
|
| Trivia: Amtrak will only run trains with private railcars at
| a maximum speed of 110 mph. On the Northeast Corridor,
| private railcars are only allowed to be added to the
| overnight Northeast Regional train which normally travels at
| 125 mph -- but there's enough padding in the schedule that
| they can slow it down to 110 without affecting the timetable.
| aoetalks wrote:
| >For the less than 100 private cars in operation in America,
| why does Amtrak even offer this service?
|
| What are you trying to ask? Don't you answer this question,
| below?
|
| >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.
|
| Or are you saying, there's only 100 private cars, why not allow
| a Presidential fare from a fleet Amtrak cars?
|
| My answer would be " Like the first class section on an
| airliner, it's effectively all profit for them" this isn't
| actually true. First class sections on planes were until
| recently mostly filled with frequent fliers that got free
| upgrades [1]. Those first class seats eat up a lot of space
| that could be directed to revenue-generating economy seats.
|
| So I would imagine one reason Amtrak doesn't offer a
| Presidential fare is because Amtrak would need to retrofit some
| cars to have that experience, and manage demand of those cars.
| The penalties of empty cars is less than that of an plane, but
| still.
|
| [1] https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/11/03/why-its-getting-
| harder-t...
| notpushkin wrote:
| I think it was a rhetorical question of sorts.
| [deleted]
| pmarreck wrote:
| 1) buy and renovate a car
|
| 2) Establish a veeeery special AirBNB
|
| 3) Profit!
| e40 wrote:
| I didn't know that was my "if I won the lottery" dream, until I
| read this comment. Seems so cool.
| cebert wrote:
| I have a similar, but more attainable train goal of riding the
| Amtrak Empire Builder route from Chicago to Spokane. The route
| looks beautiful and has a few nice stops along the way.
| mplanchard wrote:
| Rode this going the other way (Portland to Chicago) this
| summer! It's a gorgeous ride, at least until eastern Montana,
| which is a whole heck of a lot of nothing for a very long
| time. Totally worth it for going through the Columbia River
| Gorge and passing through Glacier National park, though!
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| Do it before they shut down the long hauls! I can't see it
| being feasible for Amtrak to keep running those for decades
| to come.
| runarberg wrote:
| I don't see them shutting down all the long haul routes in
| the next decade or two. They would have to keep servicing
| the segments with shorter routes, which probably means
| they'd have to invest in some infrastructure, and I don't
| see them getting the funding for that anytime soon. And
| even if that happens, they would probably save a couple of
| long haul routes for historic or cultural reasons. And
| given how popular the Empire Builder is, and how sparsely
| populated areas it goes through--meaning it is harder to
| justify the infrastructure that enables shorter routes--the
| Empire Builder will probably be the last long haul route to
| go.
|
| I think the Empire Builder will still be there in 2040,
| even if it will only be a weekly run, mostly for tourists.
| kortilla wrote:
| If you want a shorter version that cuts out all of the
| flatlands, fly to Great Falls, rent a car and drop it/board
| at East Glacier and then ride it to Spokane.
| CompleteWalker wrote:
| Pay attention to the timing of your ride! I rode this trip
| once and didn't get to the Rockies until it was too dark to
| see much of anything out the windows.
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| Thanks for the really interesting writeup!
|
| > 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.
|
| Could a 3rd-party company offer this? I.e., they own and
| operate the Presidential-like cars, and are a contractual
| middle-man between Amtrak and the riders?
| david422 wrote:
| Maybe like a timeshare. You can have this car reserved for
| November .
| mrapathy2 wrote:
| There's a company that operates a route between Chicago and
| New Orleans with a restored Pullman, attached behind a
| standard Amtrak car. See:
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/travel/all-aboard-for-
| a-t... https://railsnw.com/tours/Pullman/Rail-only-
| information3.htm
|
| The economics of it are likely difficult, but there's at
| least precedent.
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| They should call it the Precendtial!
| TecoAndJix wrote:
| Not the same, but I'm up the road from the Strasburg Railroad
| and they have some fancy cars you can dine in. I would love
| something like that from Lancaster to Philly or Philly to NYC
| https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/
|
| Fun local news fact: someone left their excavator on the
| tracks and one of the locomotives crashed into it Wednesday !
|
| https://www.wgal.com/article/train-crash-at-strasburg-
| railro...
| Waterluvian wrote:
| My billionaire dream is to make a 2/1 scale model railway.
| These little ride-on hobby railways are very cool. But I want
| everything twice as big as the real thing. Impractical, but
| conceptually hilarious IMO.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| Oh this would be hilarious. Let's get a kickstarter going
| euroderf wrote:
| If you can design an appropriate 12V DC power system you're
| halfway there.
| walrus01 wrote:
| On the scale of people who own their private G650 jet or 250
| foot yacht with 10+ full time crew it's probably quite
| affordable.
| amelius wrote:
| Does Amtrak require that other people can pass through your
| car?
| euroderf wrote:
| see comments elsewhere
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| 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?
| chiph wrote:
| 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 the end car, the conductor will
| be there watching for problems, manning the emergency brake,
| and communicating with the engineer on their radio.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wye_(rail)
|
| The new trainsets that Amtrak just ordered from Siemens
| Mobility come with cab cars, so the crew can use that to
| control the train and not be out in the weather (and have
| full gauges, etc.) The cab cars are part economy seating so
| if your private car is on that train, you will probably end
| up sandwiched between the cab car and the rest of the train
| and have people walking through.
| HWR_14 wrote:
| So you have to worry about the actual sleeping room doors
| being locked, and cannot leave a laptop just lying out in
| the dining room?
| chiph wrote:
| Trains are actually pretty safe, but I wouldn't leave a
| pricey item out where someone could take it. So far as
| locking your stateroom door - I'd do that at night just
| to keep curious teens who are exploring the train out.
| nkrisc wrote:
| If you've got a private rail car on an Amtrak train in
| the first place, I'm sure you can afford enough staff for
| a night watch shift if you really were concerned.
| worthless-trash wrote:
| It made my day that this still happens, and that it
| exists.. so very cool.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| Yeah, and it makes me happy this commenter knows so much
| about it all
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| Are these new trains different from the Siemens locomotives
| that Amtrak have been using in the Midwest for the last ~10
| years? I don't recall ever seeing anything on the back of
| those trains.
| HankB99 wrote:
| I wonder if it's like the double-decker passenger cars
| used for Metra in Chicago. These trains never change
| direction (like Amtrak) but just run forward (IIRC) into
| the city and reverse back out to the suburbs. The car on
| the end has a small cab where the engineer sits and
| controls the train when it is running reversed. From the
| outside the difference between that and a passenger car
| is pretty subtle.
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| Ha! I've always thought that all the Metra cars were
| identical and each one had a cab for when the train is
| heading into the city (Metra always configures trains so
| they "back into" the Chicago terminal (Union
| Station/Ogilvie/LaSalle).
|
| Like the CTA (and the South Shore) trains - every single
| pair could be be the lead. They all have a spot for a
| driver (engineer?)
| chiph wrote:
| They've been running the Siemens Charger locomotives for
| a little while, and are phasing out the GE Genesis
| locomotives (which are at end-of-life) as new Chargers
| are delivered.
|
| The new trainsets are the Siemens Venture cars.
| Brightline in Florida is already running a version of
| them - their cars are set up for high platforms only (all
| their stations have high platforms). The Amtrak cars will
| work with both high & low platforms, as the older
| stations on their network still have low platforms
| (passengers need to step up into the cars)
|
| https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/first-
| look...
| fabioborellini wrote:
| Railroad companies having cab cars in Europe do sometimes
| run them in the middle of trains. It is not impossible, it
| just voids the benefits of having a cab car for the
| particular train and schedule. Sometimes it is acceptable
| in the greater scheme of scheduling and planning.
|
| One example that comes to my mind is prisoner transports. I
| have seen a prisoner car (which cannot be passed through by
| passengers or crew, it has no doors at the ends) in front
| of cab car. In that sense, the cab car is being used as a
| normal passenger car, of course in the rear end of the
| train.
|
| So, if Amtrak values private cars and privacy in such cars
| enough I think they can find a solution without people
| passing through. If the schedules require faster
| turnarounds, one low-tech solution is not selling tickets
| to the cab car.
| adriand wrote:
| I feel like for people with the means to have one of
| these, having the plebeians pass through your car is a
| feature, not a bug.
| chiph wrote:
| I shall have to acquire a smoking jacket, a monocle, and
| a brandy snifter for those occasions. ;)
| btbuildem wrote:
| I don't follow, why would you want the rabble to pass
| through your private space?
| gambiting wrote:
| Well for the exact same reason why it's so fun to drive a
| very expensive very flashy sports car through a crowded
| area - you get a lot of attention and everyone thinks
| "wow this person must be loaded". If that's your thing of
| course.
|
| Same reason why rich people open up their gardens and
| dining halls and art collections to the public from time
| to time - to show off.
| _nalply wrote:
| This happened to me. The Greisinger Museum is basically a
| rich person showing off their hobby.
|
| https://www.greisinger.museum/
|
| I found it extremely interesting. Not because of the
| Tolkien lore but because it gave me a sneak peek into how
| someone really rich is living.
| itronitron wrote:
| That would really need to be taken into account by the
| person running the murder mystery game.
| bluGill wrote:
| Depending on personality you might enjoy a conversation with
| random strangers walking through.
|
| See I knew there was a plus.
| state_less wrote:
| I've been riding the Indian rail system the last few weeks
| and generally don't mind the other folks in the car. The
| thing that does get my goat is folks blasting audio out of
| their devices. Most folks are fine, but it it only takes a
| few to spoil the fun.
|
| Rail is nice here in that it's often electric, you don't
| need to focus on the road and there is more room to move
| around than on a plane or a car.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| How long have you been traveling on trains with your
| goat? How does he enjoy it, as long as folks aren't
| irritating him by blasting audio?
| paledot wrote:
| It's been great, but the wolf and chickens can be a pain
| sometimes when you have to go to the bathroom in the next
| car.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Is it as bad as what happens when you mix two birds and a
| dog on a train?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m6aomlQLjE
| sbierwagen wrote:
| Unless you used the car routinely, a hackier solution would be
| just to buy out a block of rooms in the sleeper car.
|
| Amtrak.com suggests rooms from Seattle to LA are ~$700 each.
| https://www.craigmashburn.com/amtrakcardiagrams.html says a
| Superliner sleeper car has 20 rooms. So you could rent out an
| entire car for about $14,000. Complementary meals included!
| hn_user2 wrote:
| Or just rent a Pullman car. I have not actually reserved one,
| but I always find myself searching around for charter
| companies when I see these types of articles.
|
| These guys claim $2500 a day for a charter. Not sure if it is
| legit or if there are other fees. (I assume you then also pay
| all the Amtrak fees). But I do have this on my back burner to
| try sometime. Since they offer some 4 bedroom coaches. Would
| be fun to get a group together to split the cost.
|
| https://www.pullmans.com
| spc476 wrote:
| I got to ride a private car for a few hours [1] thanks to a
| friend who rented one for a family vacation/birthday gift.
| The car went from Jacksonville, FL (where the private car
| resides), to Miami, then to Chicago via Washington, D.C.
| (or New York, I don't recall) then back to Jacksonville,
| FL. Even though he got a good price (he knows the owner),
| and he never mentioned the price, it wouldn't surprise me
| if the week vacation cost over the price of a new car (the
| price did cover the two "employees" that came with the car,
| a chef and a porter).
|
| [1] http://boston.conman.org/2015/08/05.4
| jbeales wrote:
| The American Association of Private Railcar Owners has a
| page on their website listing cars available for charter:
| https://www.aaprco.com/travel/cars-for-charter/
| cultofmetatron wrote:
| > Personally I wonder why Amtrak doesn't offer a "Presidential"
| fare
|
| they should call it "railforce one"
| gwbas1c wrote:
| How does this compare to traveling in a chauffeured and staffed
| RV? (The kind of thing that rock stars or movie stars might
| do.)
| chiph wrote:
| You have more room, mostly. A Prevost bus conversion is 45
| feet long while a railcar is 80-ish feet long (less a few
| feet for the vestibule and/or rear platform). The rail car is
| wider, except when you park your bus and put the slide-outs
| out.
|
| Of course, travel options are significantly broader with an
| RV since paved roads go everywhere. However you can't take an
| RV into some cities in the northeast - I know that Washington
| DC and Baltimore have banned them from their streets. Whereas
| Amtrak takes you right into the city center.
| don_albrecht wrote:
| I never wanted one to go anywhere, I've always wanted one for a
| tiny house / social space on my property. They always struck me
| as a perfect option for a unique cabin. I know there are old
| rail car hotels, but I've never seen one that epitomizes the
| pullman luxury.
| UIUC_06 wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Station_(restaurant)
| TrevorJ wrote:
| A couple generations ago it was not uncommon for people in
| rural areas to buy old boxcars from the railroad for this
| purpose. My grandfather did it.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| Prior art: The Boxcar Children.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boxcar_Children
|
| Not to be confused with the yet to be written The Bockscar
| Children, which would be a bleaker series altogether.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bockscar
| [deleted]
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > 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.
|
| > For the less than 100 private cars in operation in America,
| why does Amtrak even offer this service?
|
| Probably same situation as in Europe, they're legally mandated
| to give access to people and companies to their service under
| FRAND conditions. If you're interested, the fee tables are for
| nets and stations [0][1].
|
| [0]
| https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/geschaefte/infrastruktur/bah...
|
| [1] https://fahrweg.dbnetze.com/fahrweg-
| de/kunden/leistungen/tra...
| TimMeade wrote:
| Thanks for the video. I always wondered about Duke. That put a
| great 'face' to the name.
| saiya-jin wrote:
| A good friend of one of my ex was from india and their family
| had whole private train, I guess to compensate for bad roads
| back then. I guess its easier there with enough cash and
| connections. Great career, but he was/is quite out of touch
| with reality of how most people live their lives not only due
| to this.
| Symbiote wrote:
| In Britain it's straightforward to charter a private train
| from anywhere to anywhere else. It's most commonly done by
| football supporter clubs, so if Liverpool FC are playing at
| Wembley 500 supporters can travel direct from a station in
| Liverpool to Wembley Stadium Station in London.
|
| Large business also do this for company events etc.
|
| https://www.trainchartering.com/press/news_wembley.html is
| one company.
| nordsieck wrote:
| > 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".
| vore wrote:
| I feel like there's a very different aesthetic between living
| in a van and using a private train car.
| cma wrote:
| You're a lot safer walking around a moving train car than a
| moving box van, even if you have hired a driver.
| jesuscript wrote:
| 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 life story.
| kennedywm wrote:
| You're more likely to die in a train accident than be
| murdered by a serial killer.
| lazyasciiart wrote:
| And many times more likely to die in a road accident than
| either.
|
| Edit: apparently this comment, or something immediately
| before, was so objectionable that I got a temp ban. God
| knows what is going on with that.
| prawn wrote:
| I've travelled on a few luxury multi-day train trips* and
| also lived for months out of a bus, camping in forests,
| etc. Both have felt very safe to me. People are
| unnecessarily paranoid about camping in forests! The best
| aspect of the train trips are catered food/drink, not
| having to drive and otherwise sitting in your cabin with a
| book. Obviously you don't have the flexibility of stopping,
| backtracking or deviating as you wish. The luxury train
| trips I linked below have excursions via bus to the scenic
| highlights.
|
| Reading a book in your train cabin or the bar/lounge is
| nice enough, but so is parking somewhere with a view and
| the windows open, and lazing around on the bed/couch in
| your bus/van. e.g., we recently free-camped on the rim of a
| canyon: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkSY_0IODqd/
|
| The best option IMO is a mid-scale (100pax) expedition
| cruise like this:
| https://coralexpeditions.com/au/destinations/the-
| kimberley/k... You get a larger room, amazing changing
| scenery often from a private balcony, superior expeditions,
| catered meals, science lectures, etc. It is superb, if you
| can justify paying the $1k/night - similar pricepoint to
| the rail trips.
|
| * https://www.journeybeyondrail.com.au/
| bmsleight_ wrote:
| How would you compare the luxury multi-day train trips to
| a (sea) cruise ? I am generally interested in trying out
| the multi-day train, I done many overnight sleep trains
| in the UK. I like cruises, (like you said not having to
| drive siting with a book and watching the next
| destination get closer).
| chrisco255 wrote:
| 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.
| latchkey wrote:
| Funny, I own a campervan and have driven all up and down
| the west coast. The one single time I had something weird
| happen, it was in the middle of nowhere in a forest in
| Oregon. Parked on the side of the dirt road in a little
| side road off the main road. Was sound asleep when I
| heard a banging on the door. Must have been 3am or
| something... I got up and peered out the window covers
| and saw a guy standing there yelling at me to open the
| door. It was freezing cold out and he was wearing not
| much clothes for how cold it was. He looked like he had
| been sleeping in the forest for quite some time (dirty,
| long hair, beard). I yelled back at him no way that I was
| going to open the door and he yelled something back at me
| and stormed off. Didn't hear anything from him again.
| Grabbed a knife to keep it close and went back to bed.
| That was one freaky weird experience. I thought about
| driving off, but didn't want to try to find another place
| to park in the middle of the night and it seemed like he
| was gone so I just let it go.
| chrisco255 wrote:
| That is indeed weird but could even more easily happen in
| downtown Portland as in the middle of the woods. I
| definitely think you need to maintain situational
| awareness and carry protection, but that is true of any
| kind of travel.
| latchkey wrote:
| I also spent 2 years living on a motorbike went 15k km
| all over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos... some of the most
| remote places... never once had an issue with anyone.
|
| That said, in this case, I wasn't sleep out in the middle
| of a forest but I do have friends who do it more camping
| style and they haven't had issues.
|
| I guess it is all just luck of the draw (or some say,
| karma).
| codazoda wrote:
| Ever use that roof top tent in urban areas? How hard is
| that?
|
| Where I live you can park on the street for 48 hours. I
| suspect, however, that you can't sleep there. You would
| get a knock at the very least. So, I've considered an
| incognito van that looks like a work truck. But, I wonder
| if you could just pop up a roof tent and sleep wherever.
|
| I'm mostly talking about city center here. As an example,
| I'd love to do this in neighborhoods in CA (where locals
| are already street parking).
| bluGill wrote:
| Unless local law forbids Walmart allows free camping.
| There are also truck stops all over that will let RVs
| camp overnight (they might object to a slide out). Of
| course there are campgrounds all over as well.
|
| You won't find much downtown, but get out just a little
| and there are options.
| chrisco255 wrote:
| > Ever use that roof top tent in urban areas? How hard is
| that?
|
| In a Walmart parking lot, yeah. I generally use Austin as
| my base, and in Austin, people sleep in normal tents all
| over the place. Rarely are they kicked out. If you're
| trying to park in a well-to-do neighborhood, it's
| possible you'll get called out for it, but quite likely
| if you're quiet and clean and gone the next day no one
| will say anything. Often, I see the big recreational vans
| when I'm traveling. People park them and sleep in them
| everywhere. As long as you're not staying multiple nights
| in a row in the same place, you're generally not going to
| bother anyone (they will usually assume you're just
| resting from travel).
|
| But honestly, state & national parks are usually the way
| to go, particularly for tents. Sometimes it's free,
| sometimes it's a $5 per night honor system deposit
| envelope, occasionally it's a park ranger registration,
| depending on the location. And you don't always have to
| travel far off a main highway to get to a decent
| campsite, there's tons of spots if you look.
| chiph wrote:
| I like trains. And I wouldn't have to be the one driving -
| I'd be the one sitting at my dining room table enjoying my
| postprandial bliss.
|
| Downside is you're limited to where Amtrak goes (or having to
| hire a locomotive and getting permission from Union Pacific,
| Norfolk Southern, etc. to use their tracks)
|
| If I wanted to go the van-life route, I'd probably order a
| B-Box from Advanced RV in Cleveland. They have more interior
| room than a Sprinter and are better insulated. Costs about
| the same as a railcar and currently has a year-long wait.
| adolph wrote:
| post*pran*di*al | ,pos(t)'prande@l | adjective
| formal or humorous during or relating to the period after
| dinner or lunch: we were jolted from our postprandial
| torpor. * Medicine occurring after a meal: an annual
| postprandial blood glucose test. ORIGIN early
| 19th century: from post- 'after' + Latin prandium 'a meal'
| + -al.
| missedthecue wrote:
| If you're hiring chefs and stuff for your train car, buying
| a high end motorcoach and hiring a driver seems superior
| and more affordable in basically every other way.
| rsync wrote:
| The very best answer:
|
| "I like trains."
| euroderf wrote:
| One factual reason: trains don't sway and jostle as
| crudely as motor vehicles, so sleep is infinitely better.
| Also drinks do not spill.
| jonnybgood wrote:
| 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?
| matthewwolfe wrote:
| 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.
| polio wrote:
| 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.
| lovich wrote:
| The view as well. It's not a requirement of trains vs
| trucking but due to history train tracks go through many
| more scenic routes that are built or grown over, and
| aren't 3-6 lane highways blasted through nature.
| IgorPartola wrote:
| You also don't stop and go as much. With a bus you stop
| at every stop light in every suburb you drive through and
| speed changes all the time. A train makes a few
| predictable very manageable stops.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| I had an opportunity to ride one of these. It was like a
| private jet except you can live out of it in a way. The train
| experience is pretty awesome.
|
| Also, rail rights of way are ancient, so you land in the
| center of major cities.
| blueflow wrote:
| 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.
|
| Train museums use these possibilities to run extraordinary trains
| [1]. Rarely you can see them as replacement trains in regular
| service[2].
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMZAAdP431o
|
| [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YqsIzKR3Uc
| Doxin wrote:
| Over here in the Netherlands you'll sometimes see museum trains
| used to tow stranded passenger trains.[0] Quite an odd sight!
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZZIEo0NXQY
| t0mas88 wrote:
| That's a special one-off kind of thing.
|
| But the railway museum runs a historic train hourly from
| Utrecht Centraal (I think the largest station in the country)
| to their museum. That's also a strange sight to see passing
| by at crossings.
| mcv wrote:
| I've been to the railway museum a lot (my son is a train
| nut), and in my experience it's just a regular train, not a
| historic one.
| Doxin wrote:
| While it isn't ordinary operating procedure, it's not
| exactly one-off either. It has happened a couple times
| already. At least once in combination with a historic
| diesel train as well.
| derda wrote:
| There have also been occasions where Museums or clubs owning
| Steam Locos bid for contracts hauling freight and provide the
| service using their Steamers. Example here where they supply a
| railway construction site [1] or here [2] were some fertiliser
| is pulled.
|
| [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GujoYkaQf8 [2] -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qoDOXvFwH0
| [deleted]
| Ptchd wrote:
| Not very surprising that you can do it, just never thought about
| it... how much is it?
| bombcar wrote:
| About $5 a mile + all the expenses of having the car itself.
| Ptchd wrote:
| So, they don't consider weight?
| bombcar wrote:
| It's a passenger car, it weights basically nothing compared
| to a coal car so they probably just assume "some default"
| weight.
| Tangurena2 wrote:
| If your private car is "that" heavy, and they need to hook
| up an extra locomotive just for you, then that is going to
| be a steep fee per mile added.
| bombcar wrote:
| They actually mention it in the PDF under "more
| locomotives" or something.
|
| I think that mainly applies when you add a whole train to
| the train (you can hire them for multiple private cars)
| drfuchs wrote:
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| http://www.nyc-3.com/
| club_tropical wrote:
| I love this, thank you for sharing.
| xwdv wrote:
| You must be a distinguished individual to have traveled this
| way!
| throwawaysleep wrote:
| How much did that cost?
| drfuchs wrote:
| This particular car sleeps 8, and it cost us less than 4
| couples taking a cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles
| via the Panama Canal, and less than booking a private jet
| that seats 8, but more than first class airfare for 8 cross-
| country.
|
| And it also depends on whether they find someone to book
| (some subset of) the return trip that will start within a day
| or two of your arrival; otherwise you have to cover their
| Amtrak fee for the dead-head return. I'm told there's a
| network of enthusiasts who watch for such possibilities.
| Rather, two networks, who hate each other for no discernible
| reason. Or that's how I understood it, as an outsider getting
| a glimpse of an obscure but intense sub-culture.
| yuppiepuppie wrote:
| I'm sorry, but you didn't answer the question. How much did
| it cost?
| slyall wrote:
| From some quick googling: * First Class
| is around $2500/person = $20,000 for 8. * Private
| jet across country is around $40-60,000
| motohagiography wrote:
| 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.
|
| Just found some routes through the rockies, from moab to denver:
| https://www.rockymountaineer.com/routes_destinations , but a
| southwest one would be amazing.
|
| Economics are running a cruise, but over land on a train, with
| some camping and motel options to scale it. Hmm...
| thruway516 wrote:
| The gilded age is back my friends
| pmarreck wrote:
| 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
| sofixa wrote:
| For anyone else wondering/interested, apparently it's in
| Assassin's Creed Syndicate
| yellow_lead wrote:
| 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.
| gcheong wrote:
| I suppose if you can afford this you can afford to travel on
| Amtrak time.
| ak217 wrote:
| 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).
|
| 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.
| kccqzy wrote:
| I don't think you need to worry.
|
| From https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-25/can-
| you-b...
|
| > One year ago, Amtrak issued a policy notice saying it would
| make drastic cuts in operating charter services run by private
| owners. "These operations caused significant operational
| distraction, failed to capture fully allocated profitable
| margins, and sometimes delayed our paying customers on our
| scheduled trains," read the notice from March 2018. "There may
| be a few narrow exceptions to this policy. ... Otherwise, one-
| time trips and charters are immediately discontinued."
| ak217 wrote:
| Yeah, that's the "banned this practice" change that I was
| talking about.
|
| The documents in the link that the post is about are from
| 2021/2022 though. So they must have un-banned it. The
| "guidelines" document at https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/p
| rojects/dotcom/english/p... lists 44 Amtrak stations
| throughout the US where this practice is allowed (and likely
| to continue to disrupt schedules for regular passengers).
|
| It's infuriating actually. There are plenty of historic
| railroad societies that own track around the US where people
| can take their railcars to be driven around. Amtrak has a
| credibility problem because of its reputation for being
| unreliable, and this affects public perception of passenger
| rail transit overall and how worthwhile it is to invest in
| it.
| philwelch wrote:
| When Richard Anderson was the CEO, Amtrak was on track to
| achieve profitability by 2020. Then the pandemic happened,
| and then the bipartisan infrastructure bill basically
| removed all the language from the law that authorizes
| Amtrak about minimizing the cost to the taxpayer, so that
| never came to fruition.
| differentview97 wrote:
| I don't understand why Amtrak - the only operator on its
| own tracks - is unable to make it work, meanwhile in EU you
| have literally thousands of private operators operating
| their own trains as well as combined multi-owner trains
| riding on tracks belonging to dozens of owners... and it
| works fairly well, there certainly are no 6+ hours delays,
| at most an hour or so for the whole multi-state 1000km
| trip.
| Aloha wrote:
| On the small portion of the US railway network that
| Amtrak owns, its quite successful, the Northeast Corridor
| is most likely profitable (and probably the only
| profitable part of the Amtrak system).
| ak217 wrote:
| Europe has dedicated infrastructure for intercity trains
| used by people who need to get there on time. The US does
| not (outside the NEC).
|
| Can you imagine a TGV or ICE stopping to hook up a
| private car?
| differentview97 wrote:
| Sure I can. On the same track you have many different
| companies operating their own lines, combined multi-
| operatoe lines, as well as irregular connections (again
| single and multiple operators combined).
|
| I've seen multiple operators (some of them entirely
| private, some entirely state-owned corporations, some
| combinations) combine their trains on an EuroCity-
| labelled line more than a few times.
|
| I have a friend who is working on founding his own train
| company and he's actually providing services to the
| state-owned corporations where they have him operate
| their wagons in his combined train, with his own
| locomotive. He operated a major intercity line several
| times this way (they use his service when there's a
| problem on the regular route) - and it stopped to
| recombine several times. I've personally been on a train
| ride that combined his private for-fun party wagon with
| an EC train.
| ak217 wrote:
| It sounds like your sentiment is part of the same problem
| in Europe - I mean you said it yourself, you saw delays
| on these combo trains.
|
| Luckily Europe has high speed rail which does not allow
| your friend's party wagon to disrupt the schedule. You
| might imagine a TGV or ICE picking it up, but I don't
| think it will ever happen.
| differentview97 wrote:
| That's entirely up to the company operating that ICE or
| TGV train. Not saying it's going to happen - many
| companies don't let other's wagons on their trains. But
| many do.
|
| BTW so far my friend's train was never delayed by his own
| fault, not sure what problem you're talking about -
| there's no problem, his train had usually the lowest
| priority (it costs money to have higher priority) so he's
| the one waiting for "normal" trains.
|
| When I said there are delays, I meant the "normal" trains
| primarily. But sure, as he increases operation it's going
| to happen to him too.
|
| Improve schedule planning and Amtrak won't have problems
| too.
| czinck wrote:
| > the only operator on its own tracks
|
| Amtrak only owns ~630 miles of tracks out of the 21,000
| it uses, and basically all of that 630 is in the North
| East. This is definitely Amtrak's best area, although
| that's partially because of the amount of people going
| between Boston/NYC/Philadelphia/DC; the rest of the US
| doesn't have as many big cities that close together.
|
| > multi-state 1000km trip
|
| If you get on I-5 North in Los Angeles and start driving,
| 1000km later you'll still be in California.
| pionar wrote:
| New York to LA is almost 5 times that length. So your "at
| most an hour or so" can feasibly snowball to 6+ hours.
| sargun wrote:
| Does anyone know if you can rent private cars? How much?
| Tangurena2 wrote:
| There are some available for charter:
| https://www.aaprco.com/travel/cars-for-charter/
|
| > _Typical pricing for a trip is along the lines of a high-end
| cruise. On average, the all-inclusive costs typically can run
| between $2,500 and $7,000 or more per car per day. But
| remember, a rail car may accommodate 6, 8, 10, 20 people or
| more._
|
| https://www.aaprco.com/travel/where-do-i-start/chartering-a-...
| pseudolus wrote:
| There was a great story a few years ago on Bloomberg that
| discussed purchasing your own rail car. [0].
|
| https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-25/can-you-b...
| bergenty wrote:
| How much does a railcar cost?
| grogenaut wrote:
| They have several for sale linked from the article page, for
| instance a 1989 diner car which I think would have everything
| you'd need for an office, add a bed, food, bathroom, nice big
| windows.
| bombcar wrote:
| You also have to upgrade it to current safety standards and
| get it inspected.
|
| Lots of railroad museums will have old private cars, some
| even road worthy.
| grogenaut wrote:
| are any rail worthy?
| bombcar wrote:
| Rails are the original road!
|
| They are often railworthy but they may not be up to
| Amtrak's standards. However, if you find a museum with a
| locomotive and cars; you can often hire _them_ to run you
| someplace. But you may be pulled by a freight loco.
| IncRnd wrote:
| From https://railcardeals.com/ How Much Does a
| New Railcar Cost to Buy? The cost of a train car varies
| depending on the type of car and its features. For
| example, a passenger train car may cost more than a freight
| train car. The cost also depends on the train car's
| brand, model, and year. On average, a train car costs
| between $100,000 and $200,000. How Much Does it Cost
| to Buy an Old Railroad Car? If you're interested in
| purchasing an old rail car, there are a few things you
| need to know. First, it's essential to know how much money
| you're willing to spend. Rail cars can vary significantly
| in price, depending on their age, condition, and
| amenities. For example, an older car might cost less than
| $5,000, while a newer model with more features could cost
| upwards of $50,000.
| kposehn wrote:
| I've actually been looking into refurbishing a newer railcar
| and kitting it out much more like a home. There's a lot you
| can do and equipment like older Metra gallery cars along with
| more recent commuter cars are an excellent starting point.
| cloudsec9 wrote:
| This seems really neat, actually. While it seems it would
| be a bit more expensive than you'd think, if you loved
| railroads then it would be a cool thing to own. I guess the
| only restriction would be having to hook into an Amtrak
| train/route, but otherwise I think traveling North America
| by rail could be pretty interesting.
|
| My cost comment comes from seeing cars "surplus" for a few
| thousand dollars, but I'm guessing they might need
| significant upgrades to be eligible to hook up to Amtrak,
| not to mention being comfortable for the owner.
| throwawaaarrgh wrote:
| okay, I'll bite: _who asked for this?!_
| whartung wrote:
| These aren't really being used by top hat wearing, cigar
| smoking moguls.
|
| Today they're basically private party trains and rail fan
| excursions.
| dghlsakjg wrote:
| Private cars have been a thing for a LONG time. This isn't a
| new service
| kodt wrote:
| Exactly, I have on several occasions seen them stationed in
| Union Station in Chicago for as long as a week.
| GrifMD wrote:
| 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.
|
| https://www.luxurytrainclub.com/trains/seven-stars-kyushu/
|
| https://www.jreast.co.jp/shiki-shima/en/
| ninjin wrote:
| Thank you for sharing this. I have many times seen the Shiki-
| Shima ("Four-season Island") head north from Tokyo past where I
| used to live and wondered just what it was that I was
| observing. Up until now I thought it was a private train and I
| could have sworn that I spotted a piano in the lounge each time
| it passed.
| esaym wrote:
| 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 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.
| Animats wrote:
| 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/
| ec109685 wrote:
| What did you end up doing when the hackathon on the train
| didn't work out?
| joshmn wrote:
| Safety manual, in case anyone else is interested:
| https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/p...
| [deleted]
| rippercushions wrote:
| There are an increasing number of ultra-deluxe trains in Japan
| that aim to replicate the experience. Seven Stars is the
| original:
|
| https://www.cruisetrain-sevenstars.jp/english/
|
| 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.
|
| Fun facts: you're required to wear a tuxedo to dinner, and
| despite the price tag, the train is _enormously_ popular and they
| need to use a lottery system to select who gets to ride.
| rcMgD2BwE72F wrote:
| See also https://www.belmond.com/experiences/train
| 50208 wrote:
| Cool AF
| _3u10 wrote:
| Sounds very archer-esque
| reaperducer wrote:
| There is a surprising number of big name entertainers who are
| afraid of flying, and either have their own rail cars, or rent
| them.
|
| You will occasionally see them parked on the siding by Symphony
| Park when they're playing Las Vegas.
| aliqot wrote:
| That's pretty cool. Any names we might know?
| bookofjoe wrote:
| Mark Hamill, Whoopi Goldberg, Lars von Trier
|
| https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=67.
| ..
| snvzz wrote:
| Add some desks and computers, and you've got a mobile office.
|
| Employees can hop in/out on stations to start/end their shifts.
|
| /s
| notpushkin wrote:
| This would actually make a cool coworking space.
|
| In Moscow, there's a city train line called MCC (Moscow Central
| Circle) which you can hop on for around $1 and just sit there
| all day. There are power sockets and Wi-Fi, and on stations
| there are vending machines with snacks and coffee. It's cozy
| and helps concentrate on things (for me at least).
|
| For the train geeks: the trains used there are a regional
| version of Siemens Desiro, called _Lastochka_ which is Russian
| for the bird swallow.
| bobsmith432 wrote:
| I wonder if it's possible to live on one of these full-time
| allthecybers wrote:
| 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.
| jesuscript wrote:
| The housing market might turn the world into Snowpiercer:
|
| _It takes place aboard the Snowpiercer train as it travels a
| globe-encircling track, carrying the last remnants of humanity_
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowpiercer
| gruez wrote:
| >The housing market might turn the world into Snowpiercer
|
| I don't get it. Houses become so expensive that the last
| remnants of humanity has to live on a train? Isn't this a
| "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded" situation?
| kposehn wrote:
| Ok, you're subscriber number one then. Anyone else? I'm
| completely serious. Private Varnish (ie: private railcars) have
| always been something I love. It would be a hoot to live in one
| with my fam for a year (if I can convince them).
| techdragon wrote:
| I'm all on this for actually helping physically do this (even
| for loose definitions of physical, like run a website haha,
| but I'd imagine someone on HN restoring a train carriage
| could manage a Wix/SquareSpace/etc site by themselves)...
| I've wanted to build a steam engine since I was a kid, I
| thought it would be amazing to design a stupidly modern steam
| engine and break the world records with it, and this, while
| this is not a steam engine, it is honestly the closest I'll
| probably get to any of that dream given how impractical it is
| ...
| ehnto wrote:
| Plenty of hobby clubs build wooden boats for fun as a
| group, why not railcars!
| TigeriusKirk wrote:
| I bet MrBeast could pull off a "I paid a guy $100,000 to spend
| a month in a private train car" or something.
| denkmoon wrote:
| Wouldn't even need to pay me to do it. The only thing
| stopping me is a lack of a private train car and presumably
| the significant expense of running it :(
| jesuscript wrote:
| There's gotta be a Groupon for this. So long as anyone
| doesn't have a major criminal record, I'm game.
| public_defender wrote:
| Why would a criminal record be relevant at all?
|
| Other than prior convictions for train robbery, I guess.
| [deleted]
| csande17 wrote:
| I, for one, would rather not be murdered on the Orient
| Express.
| _carbyau_ wrote:
| To be fair, the Orient Express victim _really_ did piss
| off a few people. And I don 't know if many of them had
| any criminal records beforehand either.
| aliqot wrote:
| Bring some extra soups, what's the harm? Criminals have
| the best bedtime stories.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| Seeing as they apparently made up fake terrain and
| mountains around Vinkovci in the movie I probably be
| worried about fake weather killing me.
| techdragon wrote:
| So its a privately owned and operated rail car, that lots
| of people can group together with and pay the total cost
| of by individually paying a smaller part of it, like some
| sort of ... publicly accessible private transportation
| ... I think you might be on to something!
| jesuscript wrote:
| Jesus you're right, I never knew I was a socialist.
| rongopo wrote:
| Wait! All old first local trains started like this.
| vagrantJin wrote:
| > publicly accessible private transportation
|
| Uber for trains.
|
| There, I said it.
| ajaimk wrote:
| Amtrak does this for free - check out the Writer's Residency
| Program
| anarchogeek wrote:
| 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.
| darig wrote:
| chaps wrote:
| 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.
|
| aw :(
| Malic wrote:
| James West would approve.
| jjslocum3 wrote:
| This was a common practice in the early 20th century, as many of
| the wealthiest in the US owned and traveled by private rail car.
| zachlatta wrote:
| 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 finances are open source at
| https://github.com/hackclub/the-hacker-zephyr
| smohnot wrote:
| This is super cool. I took a quick look but couldn't see how it
| was funded... how was it?
| thepasswordis wrote:
| This seems unbelievably expensive. How is this funded?
| zachlatta wrote:
| 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.
| tbihl wrote:
| 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.
| bombcar wrote:
| That's $5k per kid or $500/day per kid. Not bad at all
| considering.
| pooper wrote:
| I always get the feeling that I am not good with big
| numbers.
|
| Like a public library spending USD 50k+ per month(?) to
| Oracle seems outrageous to me but I guess it isn't so
| outrageous given the annual budget is over USD 100M?
| moooo99 wrote:
| I always feel like Software licenses are a different
| beast. For example, 300k in Windows license costs might
| not be mulch out of a 50M budget, but it is much when you
| think about the fact that these costs could also be zero.
| differentview97 wrote:
| How exactly could these costs be 0?
| tucnak wrote:
| There is KDE.
| differentview97 wrote:
| The DE is the least interesting question of this.
| dmos62 wrote:
| Use free software?
| notpushkin wrote:
| I'm absolutely pro-FOSS but also want to point out that
| just the licence cost comparison here isn't too
| meaningful. Licence + maintenance cost fould be a much
| more sensible figure (and much less likely to be zero).
| differentview97 wrote:
| What free software offers the enterprise features of
| Windows? AFAIK not even Red Hat is anywhere close to the
| central management features of Windows domains. Samba on
| Linux/Mac is severely backwards and using it is pain.
| IX-103 wrote:
| I think you'll find your experience here is outdated.
| There are a few good tools for managing Linux systems -
| puppeteer is one. What sorry if features are you missing?
|
| As for Samba, Gnome has good client built in to the file
| browser. But I'd have to ask why you're using Samba at
| all. There are much better network filesystems in the
| Linux world that don't come with all the legacy cruft and
| undocumented idiosyncrasies that are part of the SMB
| protocol. They're harder to set up on Windows, but that
| shouldn't be a problem if you standardize on Linux.
| differentview97 wrote:
| Samba - or to be precise MS AD is not just about files.
| On Linux it's limited to files and that's exactly the
| problem I'm talking about. On Mac it's at least able to
| share certificates and some basic settings now - still
| not ideal though.
|
| Actually with modern clouds like OneDrive it's not about
| files at all, I haven't seen network drives being used
| for a decade. It's about privileges to various resources
| available within the corporate network and about what you
| can't do with your work computer, and about having the
| computer auto-configure to play with all the resources on
| corporate network.
|
| It's about setting detailed access level based on AD
| groups - including user applications, not just networked
| drives or whatever. Permissions to CRM/ERP systems,
| document management systems etc. Detailed as much as
| "this user can only see contracts and invoices assigned
| to the London branch".
|
| I open my computer and I immediately see the printer
| that's nearest to me as the first printer in the list.
| Access to it is authenticated and authorized (with no
| additional password prompts). I can simply choose a
| document from SharePoint and send it right there, walk
| over there and slap my chip card on it and have it
| printed. It's part of my system's print queue but if I
| switch computers in the meantime I can still work with
| the queue item there.
|
| I scan a document and it goes directly to my OneDrive
| which is automatically connected to whatever computer I
| sit at as soon as I log in, regardless of me using a
| random terminal that's been sitting in whatever office
| I'm visiting.
|
| I'm unable to break anything because there is no root to
| login to, nobody ever uses sudo on the computer, nobody
| ever needs admin privileges on it (harder to do with devs
| but common for all other professions). If an app needs to
| be added the computer is remotely reimaged from an image
| with the app added (this requires a one-setting change by
| the admin, nothing else). No user settings or files go
| missing in the process.
|
| Corporate VPN, firewall, proxy servers, wifi network,
| wired network - all of it requires auth. The system just
| takes my user certificate and _just works_ with it all by
| itself. Nothing is available without auth, nothing is
| unencrypted.
|
| Building this kind of system with Microsoft products is
| as easy as installing a few apps on the corporate server
| machine. I literally learned how to do it when I was 12
| and couldn't speak English yet.
|
| Building it with Linux - well I am pretty skilled with
| Linux admin (as much as you'd expect someone who used it
| as their primary system for 15 years and hosts their own
| websites etc) but I can't even imagine where to begin.
|
| Using puppeteer to connect to individual machines and
| turn options there - that's crazy. Enterprise Windows are
| fully declarative. And using separate systems to manage
| Windows/Mac and Linux - that's crazy. Apple is doing what
| it can to support MS AD - if Linux wants to be a special
| case, it's going to remain a special case.
| bombcar wrote:
| Here's my trick - convert the number to $ per family per
| year.
|
| So for a public library, you'd take 50k and multiply by
| 12 and get 600k/yr. Then you'd find the number of
| families served by the library, and divide that out. 600
| families? That's 1k per family per year, too much. 6000
| families? 100 per family per year, still high but not
| insane. 60000 families? Now we're down to $10. And if it
| were Chicago with 1 million families (or households which
| can be an easier number to find) we're at 60 cents per.
| Not bad.
|
| You can do similar things at state and national levels to
| get a ballpark feeling. Student loan forgiveness will
| cost $400 billion over 30 years, let's say. There are
| about 122 million households, so forgiveness costs $3300
| per household over 30 years, or $110 a year. At this
| point you can decide how much it's worth worrying about.
| club_tropical wrote:
| Insanely cool.
| chiph wrote:
| With Starlinks new in-motion service you could have really
| great connectivity on those trips.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| Wouldn't normal cell service suffice as well? Unlike in an
| RV, you'd presumably never be too far from civilization.
| naturalauction wrote:
| I haven't taken this route specifically, but a lot of
| Amtrak routes don't follow roads and don't have great cell
| service.
| bombcar wrote:
| Almost all long distance Amtrak routes deviate quite far
| from civilization. Once you're out of the cities and away
| from a highway you get cell pockets.
| walrus01 wrote:
| If you can afford a private rail car I'm sure you can also
| afford a peplink router with dual wan interface, and one of
| the two way going to starlink, the other to a cradlepoint
| LTE modem and antenna system for T-Mobile or Verizon.
| selimnairb wrote:
| So they're saying we could crowd-fund an extremely shitty version
| of Snowpiercer?
| qull wrote:
| This was the percursor to private jets.
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