Private Rail Cars: Resources, Operations, & Discussion

The standards for operating private cars on Amtrak are detailed in Amtrak Standard Maintenance Procedure (SMP) 28603 "Mechanical Standards for Operating Privately Owned Cars in Amtrak Trains" issued 1/12/1982 revised 3/4/2011. It is available as a PDF format file, 38 pages.

The rates are detailed in the Amtrak private car tariff dated 6/1/2007. One of the key numbers is $2.10 per mile. If two are more cars are traveling together on the same movement, then the second car (and any additional cars) travel at $1.60 per mile. There is also a special discounted "frequent traveler" rate of $1.90 per mile, payable in advance, for a single car making 5 round-trips between a city pair in a calendar year; unused mileage credit is forfeited. Parking is $100 per night at most Amtrak locations; some locations are higher. Minimum movement charge is $1000.00 and the annual account administrative fee is $250 per car.

Don't they have an extra terminal switching charge?

Jersey_Mike wrote:Don't they have an extra terminal switching charge?

Amtrak does not impose an additional charge for switching, from train to train, and to/from parking, except for three specific moves:

1. Between New York Penn Station / Sunnyside Yard and Hudson Yard (interchange with NJ Transit including cars to/from Morristown & Erie Railway)

2. Between New York Penn Station / Sunnyside Yard and SHELL interlocking (interchange with Metro North)

3. Between Boston South Station and Boston North Station (cars to/from Downeaster service)

I think their justification for those three switching moves is that they have to dedicate a locomotive and crew to the move for a longer period of time. The charge is reasonable.

Via Rail Canada has such a steep charge in their tariff for switching / turning / wyeing private cars that they have driven off most PV business in Canada. For example, a trip from New York to Montreal and Quebec City and return on Amtrak's Adirondack and on Via Montreal-Quebec City trains would require 6 separate switching charges on Via:

1. Amtrak Adirondack to Via parking at Montreal
2. Via parking at Montreal to Via train
3. Via train to Via parking at Quebec City
4. Via Parking at Quebec City to Via train
5. Via Train to Via parking at Montreal
6. Via parking at Montreal to Amtrak Adirondack

The total switching and parking charges exceed the mileage charges!

Via also adds provincial and federal taxes to their tariff charges.

to be fair to Via , switching is a extra cost , whereas mileage is basically a bit more fuel use on a train already running .

They don't allow people to ride on the Grand Junction Railroad in Boston do they? I thought I remember reading it's FRA Exempt.

I believe there was quite a bit of trackwork done on the Grand Junction
branch about a year ago. I do not know whether the branch is still in
"exempt" status or not.

Here's a good Washington Post article on Amtrak's private car business. It describes what sort of people own the cars and how much maintaining a car costs. It also mentions that Amtrak makes about 600k a year in profit on 2.5 million in private car revenue. Not a huge amount of money, but every dollar of profit counts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pri ... story.html

<BUMP> Updates coming stay tuned.

Nice video. No text to quote. Enjoy!

http://video.foxnews.com/v/151590345800 ... p=features

Jeff Smith wrote:Nice video. No text to quote. Enjoy!

http://video.foxnews.com/v/151590345800 ... p=features

Patrick Henry, CEO of Patrick Henry Creative Productions, as well as CEO of Creative Charters, owns the private cars WARREN HENRY and EVELYN R HENRY (which have been renamed after his parents), based in Texas, which are two of the more elite private cars in the nation.

David Benton wrote:to be fair to Via , switching is a extra cost , whereas mileage is basically a bit more fuel use on a train already running .

I don't agree with your perspective, and that of Via Rail Canada, on private car switching. If there is a switcher and crew on duty in the terminal, then there is little or no marginal cost in having them switch a private car, such as from an inbound train to parking, or from parking to an outbound train.

One reason why Via Rail Canada does such a small amount of PV business in comparison to Amtrak is that Via's tariff rate structure is so much higher than Amtrak's tariff rate structure. Those Via adding/cutting/switching charges add up fast; Amtrak provides most of such similar switch moves at no additional cost. Via's mileage charge is effectively double Amtrak's mileage charge. Via's parking charges are almost quadruple Amtrak's parking charges. Don't forget that Via adds national and provincial taxes to your invoice. The only place I have paid a tax on Amtral was for parking at New Orleans, where the municipality collects a tax of about 20% on parking.

A second reason why Via Rail Canada does such a small amount of PV business in comparison to Amtrak is that their operating restrictions limit private cars to selected routes in Canada. The policy of no private cars behind PARK cars rules out travel on the rear of the Canadian and the Ocean.

However, that is just my opinion as an Amtrak/Via certified private car owner since 1987.

Those of you in California and the western states may be familiar with private car SCOTTISH THISTLE, a former CN lightweight business car, which is stored on the Garden Tracks at LAUPT when not out on the road.

http://www.scottishthistle.com
http://www.aaprco.com/cgi/cars/cardispl ... istle:type

Her owner, Dean McCormick, passed on March 24th. Here is a copy of the obituary. courtesty of AAPRCO.

D. Dean McCormick, Jr.
June 3, 1930 – March 24, 2012

Dean McCormick loved his family, his friends and his life. He grew up in Highland Park Illinois, and graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1952. He met Mary Helen Maxwell of Decatur, Illinois at Cheley Colorado Camps, where Dean spent many summers as a camper and a counselor. They were married in 1952 and celebrated their 50th anniversary, before she passed away in 2003.

In 1960, Dean brought his family to Orange County to begin their California adventure. They never left. He spent his career as an executive in the transportation industry, and proudly applied his transportation know-how to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Organizing Committee. Dean quickly became a significant presence in Orange County. For 29 years, Dean served Orange County children as a trustee on the Tustin Elementary, Tustin Unified and Orange County School Boards. He served as President of the Board many times, and received the 1981 Marian Bergeson Award, as the outstanding board member of Orange County. He took great pride in having handed his three children their junior high school and high school diplomas at each of their graduation ceremonies, as the school board representative.

Dean was a member of the Orange County Education Foundation, President of the California School Boards Association, a current member of the Orange County Department of Education County Committee, and a founding member of Inside the Outdoors Foundation. Dean served as a board member, and as president, of the John Austin Cheley Foundation supporting Cheley camps. An ardent and active Republican, Dean joined the Tustin Area Republican Assembly in the 1960s, and was a member of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, as well as a number of local Congressional Clubs. He belonged to Trinity United Presbyterian Church and was a long time usher greeting members and guests with a smile and a quip. In 1982 he was Tustin’s “Man of the Year.”

Dean developed a fascination for trains and railroads, while walking to school in Highland Park. In 1994, he fulfilled a dream and became owner and operator of the SCOTTISH THISTLE, a private railroad car. Along with countless friends and family members, he traveled on almost all of the rail lines in the United States, from coast to coast in Canada and even a few trips into Mexico. Dean served on the board of directors and two terms as president of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners.

He will be deeply missed by his devoted and loving companion Susan Dobak, his children Dean III (Martha) and Jim (partner Maryann), son-in-law, Mark Thomas, his six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and his sister Mary McCormick Thomas. All of them, in addition to three generations of the Dobak family and his many friends, have lost a wonderful and cherished part of their lives. His daughter, Carol McCormick Thomas, predeceased him in 2007.

A memorial [was] held at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in North Tustin on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 1:30pm. Donations in honor of Dean can be made to the Carol M. Thomas Memorial Fund at the John Wayne Cancer Institute, (http://www.jwci.org), or the John Austin Cheley Foundation (http://www.cheley foundation.org).

According to the linked NYT article, NOUPT handled 28 private cars for 1986's superbowl, including 15 from tenant SP and 13 privately owned cars travelling via Amtrak. Is this still a common occurence? I've seen CSX, NS, RJC, and BNSF send shipper specials to the Masters and Kentucky Derby, so it's not unbelievable, just interesting.

"Amtrak will store 28 private cars over Super Bowl weekend inside its New Orleans station, including 15 cars owned by the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. and being used by Southern Pacific executives to entertain clients."

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986 ... tchartrain

<BUMP> for my buddy Tad. I thought this was an interesting question. Would JHDEASY know?