Beech Grove Shop Interesting Finds

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Seaboard92

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Well I'm planning a business trip to Gateway Railcar in Madison, IL. And driving from South Carolina I figured I would check out some other things. As it's a long road trip I felt like seeing some railroads, and places I've never seen before. So when I was looking at Beech Grove on line I found some interesting finds. I use Google Maps Lite Mode, which angles down if you zoom far enough in. Without further talking I'll post what I see.

2-GE Centercab Switchers in Phase V

1-VRE F40

12-NJT stainless cars

3-F40PH Cabbages in Phase III

2-P42DCs on flat cars

4-Wrecked P42DCs

3-F40PH Cabbages Phase V

6-Wrecked Superliners

28-Superliners one in Phase III

7-Horizon cars

2-Hilevel EX ATSF Coaches

4-MHC Boxcars

27-Hertitage baggage cars about half are in Phase III

17-Budd Heritage sleepers

2-Budd Diners

1-Viewliner

Bear Delaware Shop

13-Genisis type locomotive

5-F40PH body locomotive

It looks like there are a lot of cars in the fleet that aren't in use. Among the heritage sleepers that means 19 are accounted for. I believe one has been sold off as I've seen it pass by the railcar brokers. My other question is with these surplus sleepers, think Amtrak would be willing to make a sale? I would prefer to have the heritage sleepers just because they have a trap for my Christmas trains. And they look roadworthy still.
 
Keep in mind that you are viewing old satalite images that do not accurately reflect what is where currently. Example: the Genesis P40s that were at Bear were moved to Beech Grove in late 2012 and only one is there presently. That makes the images of Bear at least three years old, if not older. Another example is there is only one cabbage(with roll up baggage doors) F40 remaining in Phase III. The NJT cars were refurbished for CA and are out in Oakland. As far as being able to tell what's roadworthy by looking down from space, that's pretty funny.
 
If the imagery of Bear is recent, you'd see the AEM-7s and a large string of HHP-8s so I suspect it predates mid 2014.

As for selling the equipment, the heritage fleet was benched since they lacked retention toilets and parts are hard to come by. Perhaps you could make them an offer.
 
FYI, the Google Earth imagery for Bear DE is from October, 2011. A lot more can change in 49 months.
 
I'm thinking about sticking an offer in with my most recent proposal to the operations department. Maybe Frank can get the ball rolling for me on them. My plan for the cars would be to gut the inside completely for the dorm lounges. Open plan the seating similar to the SP 2979 lounge. Which is a large lounge with a service bar in the middle. While it isn't the size of the 2979 which is a triple unit car. The single unit should look nice with it. Of course once I get the cars I'm going to open it up for AU members to help me restore it. And operate for the gathering.
 
When Amtrak has release there old equipment in the past, there was a long line of bidders. However with IP recent buying spree, anything past prime life use, will be scrapped.

Your best bet is grab some older commuter equipment. There not actively trying to stop people from running trains.
 
If you can find an application for the Heritage sleepers which retains the sleeping compartments but strips the toilets, you'd be golden, you'd have something which could be done at reasonable cost...

...but it's hard to think of one. You'd have to pair it with a car with a toilet. Might be an opportunity for someone who already has a private car which isn't a sleeper, run them as a pair.
 
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/catalog.asp?catid=383&n=Amtrak-Certified

...a cool half-million.

The real cost comes afterwards, in parking and movement and certification fees and maintenance. There's a reason so many private railcar owners go into the business of renting it out.

Non-Amtrak-certified cars are sometimes much cheaper... but the upgrades will generally bring you right back to the same costs, though you can put in labor as "sweat equity". Also as long as they're not Amtrak certified, you have to have a private railroad to run them on, which is another order of magnitude more expensive. (And is therefore primarily done by freight shortlines or nonprofit museums with a large membership.)

Private railcars are one of the most expensive hobbies I have ever looked into, after big yachts and space travel. Horse racing is comparable but can be cheaper.

Of course, if you find a really good "home" parking spot and you have the right attitude, you can live in your railcar and save on the cost of a house. :)
 
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I'm starting a private Santa train business on shortlines in the SE. So I'm looking for short distance cars. Good for freight traffic and short lines. For the hour round trips I really don't need the toilets. Even though one might make the conversion as I'll probably be making my December home in it. So non amtrak certified is ok with me. I've found a museum that will let me park in exchange for usage.

My plan is to gut the car 100 percent. Get rid of the roomettes, and everything else in the car. I will likely keep the parts I'm a storage container somewhere in case there is a need for it in the future.

Does anyone have a floor plan for the heritage dorm lounges?

Now I have a second train I'm running with Amtrak for football games. And I'm actually chartering the Hollywood Beach if it's available when I need it.
 
If you're trying for a completely open interior, I think you're probably better off going with a car which already has such a design, of which there are still gobs floating around.

From a historical preservation point of view, it's detrimental to gut cars which still have lots of historic structure (which Amtrak's Heritage cars do). And from a practical perspective, it's a lot easier to start with cars which already have been gutted to nearly-correct shape. If I were you, unless you have a specific reason for preferring the Heritage sleepers, I'd look for more suitable cars to start with... you know how many listings there are at Ozark Mountain Railcar, and it's not the only listing location.

Perhaps you have done so already, but I'd spend some time going through the offerings:

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/catalog.asp?catid=380&n=Passenger-Cars

It's going to be a lot easier to inspect these and figure out their condition and details -- with eager sellers -- than it is to inspect anything stored at Amtrak, to whom you will be perceived as a bother.

There's actually a lot of gorgeous coaches in decent condition -- and even better, lounge and observation cars in good condition -- and even better than that, cars already converted to private car service, which would be excellent for Santa Train type of usage.

And they're *much* cheaper than the Amtrak-certified ones.

I think installing roller bearings must massively add to the costs. If you have a roller-bearing requirement (which you might have even if you don't need to run on Amtrak), that's going to raise your cost and restrict your options a lot. If you don't need roller bearings, you've got a lot of options.

Take a look at this private car:

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/detail.asp?id=926&n=Spirit-of-Tennessee-REDUCED-86

Or this lounge car:

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/detail.asp?id=784&n=Santa-Fe-Lounge-Car-1346-REDUCED

Or this twin diner unit:

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/detail.asp?id=518&n=New-York-Central-Twin-Unit-Diner-REDUCED

Or this coach:

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/detail.asp?id=1576&n=Illinois-Central-Coach-721-REDUCED-1015

Or this RDC which *still has the engines*:

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/detail.asp?id=489&n=Central-Railroad-of-New-Jersey-RDC-1-551-REDUCED
 
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Right now I'm exploring any and all possibilities. I know I'm looking for diners, and lounges. I kinda want the amtrak crew dorms for the conversion. I would probably leave the first one mostly original as I need sleeping space for myself in December. And for my regular crew the roomettes should more then suffice. But I am looking for open plan. I'm hitting up Gateway Railcar in Maddison Il this winter. And figure I might make a move on the cars at Beech Grove as I'm going to Indy already. See what's available. The twin unit you posted is not far from my operating area
 
The other reason I'm after these cars more is because of the construction of the cars. The cars Amtrak has are all Budd Company cars. And the Budd cars are built better, and require less maintenance then a Pullman Standard car. There is less corrosion and water damage. So in the long run it's cheeper to operate and own Budds then it would be to operate a Pullman Standard or ACF car.
 
Makes sense. There are a lot of Budds floating around outside Amtrak, though!

And if you do need a sleeper for yourself and friends to sleep in, then the crew dorm makes *lots* of sense.
 
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Likely our regular crew will be me, my assistant, our Maintenance guy, and our head of obs. The rest of them the plan is for hiring temporary local obs positions. There are plenty of good Budds and I'll look at any I can find. I would take a PS if it was invalid repair
 
The Spirit of Tennessee? That's been up there for about a year, at least. Nice car; good price.

Is it being used on a dinner train, tourist railroad, or...????

Seriously, I wouldn't mind calling that car my home.

So, Santa, if you're listening.....
 
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It's being used at Tennessee Central railway Museum. It's privately owned. You should see their train. It's all Budd. Led by an E unit. And trailing two f7bs and a freight wide cab
 
Honestly, that RDC seems like a real opportunity for a museum line on a low budget. There seems to be a surprisingly short list of museums & tourist lines with operating RDCs. Wouldn't work as well for a line with no scenery as an attraction where the cars themselves have to be pretty, but it has honest historical value and is economical to operate.
 
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