Bar cars: end of an era?

[Tommy Meehan]

I was at Grand Central last night for a Railway & Locomotive Historical Society New York Chapter meeting. A reporter from 1010 WINS (an all news station) was on hand to do interviews. She interviewed one of our members.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Gray Lady has noted the passage of the Bar Car in Today's Print Edition Page 1 'Below the Fold':

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/nyreg ... r-car.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm not certain if this Brief Passage is factually correct:

• Since before World War II, when rail was king and Prohibition was dead, the rolling saloon has been a national staple — its contents relied upon to make the strangers less strange, the commutes less interminable. But over the years, the bar cars began to disappear: Chicago, one of the last holdouts, abandoned its bar service in 2008.
  
  At the end, only Metro-North remained, according to the American Public Transportation Association

Last time I checked, Bar Car Clubs still operate on METRA/UP/CNW North Line serving places like Winnetka, Lake Forest, and Kennilworth (I'm talkin' Rye, Greenwich, Westport kind of towns). However these are Clubs using former C&NW (UP styled) Lounge Cars placed at the head of Outbound trains.

Be sure to check out the linked material within The Times article.

[Tommy Meehan]

Car 553 is a little different than the (now former) New Haven Line bar cars. The NH cars were owned by the railroad agency and were open to any fare paying passenger, you didn't even have to patronize the bar to grab a seat. Car 553 is a privately owned 'members-only' subscription car, Here's a brief excerpt from a Chicago Tribune article I linked.

Car 553, the nation's last privately owned commuter car is the successor to the famed Deerpath, the coach that Lake Forest's elite purchased 80 years ago to run on the former Chicago & North Western Railroad.

Five fifty-three's $900 a year membership fee isn't really that bad if you think about it: less than eighteen dollars a week to ride in style and relax. I guess the main thing is, for it to be worthwhile, you have to have a job where you get out of work at the same time every day (or at least most days). That would leave me out.

[BerndinMA]

Hey the MBTA/MBCR/Keolis/ CCRTA Cape Flyer train with Bar car starts service Memorial day weekend. The bar car is not dead we just put it on the sessional train up here.

Edit/ Rumor has it that 2 of the BBR cars are to be converted to bar cars. I don't put stock in that as the T can't serve drinks on its own service only when it is running a contractor for some one else like in the Cape Flyer case. Or that is the way someone else explained it to me.

[Backshophoss]

When the Cape Flyer clears MBTA property at the Division Post and is on Mass Central trackage,thats when
the Bar opens(as I understand it in the MBTA Forum)

[Clean Cab]

Removed. Posted on wrong forum.

[DutchRailnut]

ok first the Cape flyer is not a regular scheduled commuter train, second it has no connection to Metro North or CDOT so just STOP.

[Clean Cab]

There is currently an M8 "bar" pair (9630/9531) in service. CDOT owned M8 cars numbered (odd only) from 9531 to 9543 (paired with 9600 series "A" car) will eventually be converted to a modified bar car, funding pending of course.

[DutchRailnut]

and 5 levels of study, after all its CDOT a.k.a Connecticut Department of Tar.

[Otto Vondrak]

Due to an earlier service disruption involving a trespasser fatality at Milford with Amtrak 171, Metro-North equipment swaps were made now resulting in the last cafe car OPERATING on train 1578 departing GCT at 7:34 PM.

The schedule was messed up all day. I actually did the drive from Rochester with a couple of friends down to Stamford to do one last round trip and thought we were going to be screwed until we heard the bar car was bumped to 7:34. A good last ride, wish I could have ridden all the way to New Haven, but had a six-hour drive home!

-otto-

[Gilbert B Norman]

With some 75% of the M-8 now on the property, the date for a likely 'M-2 farewell fan trip' must not be all that far off.

Will a working Bar Car be part of the consist?

[Clean Cab]

An M2 farewell trip? Maybe. A bar pair in the consist? Probably not. All remaining bar pairs have been put into storage pending preparation for scrapping. But if there is a big enough demand for one, it could happen. MN is unlikely to fund the trip by itself, so some group would have to cover the cost. Any volunteers?

[Ridgefielder]

An M2 farewell trip? Maybe. A bar pair in the consist? Probably not. All remaining bar pairs have been put into storage pending preparation for scrapping. But if there is a big enough demand for one, it could happen. MN is unlikely to fund the trip by itself, so some group would have to cover the cost. Any volunteers?

It's a shame one of the bar car pairs isn't going to a museum. They are rather unique pieces of equipment after all.

[Clean Cab]

All M2's must be scrapped because they have both asbestos and PCB contamination. I to would like to see a bar pair sent to a museum, but it just cannot happen. Word is an M6 triplet will be offered to the Danbury Railway Museum once all M2's, M4's & M6's are officially retired.

[DutchRailnut]

Ridgefielder do we have to explain again about the asbestos and remnants of PCB's or you think you got it first time ???