Q: I was dropping a friend off at the station in our town a week or so ago and the Lake Shore Limited went through with a classic passenger rail car on the rear. How does one get to ride in one of those beauties? A: There are a couple of companies that can arrange a…
For years, Amtrak has hauled vintage passenger cars around the country at the rear of regularly scheduled passenger trains. For this service, the owners of the private cars pay about $2.75 per mile, plus additional charges for switching, storage, etc. Six months or so ago, Amtrak announced tough new restrictions on these private rail…
Every so often, you’ll see a private rail car at the rear of an Amtrak train. The insider term for those cars is “PV”, which is shorthand for “private varnish”. That’s a reference to the lovely wood paneling and trim that’s found in many of those cars. Most of those classic rail cars are…
If you want to take your interest in trains to a whole new level, there’s always “private varnish.” That’s the inside term for privately-owned railroad cars and referring to the beautiful wood paneling that is featured inside so many of these beauties. There are more of them than you think, too. And many…