Railcar home conversion

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Joined
Apr 1, 2019
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13
Hi. Have had this pipe dream of converting an Amtrak Viewliner or Dome or Sleeper/Lounge railcar into a home on a piece of land (permanent). Wondering if anyone here has done it or knows some one who has done it? Thanks.
 
I know of a hotel that converted a F45 diesel into a hotel room. It’s quite the room. If you need any advice into converting a car. Or referring you to a good shop let me know.
 
I know of a hotel that converted a F45 diesel into a hotel room. It’s quite the room. If you need any advice into converting a car. Or referring you to a good shop let me know.

Thanks, Seaboard92. I will definitely reach out to you when this crazy idea gets me to act on it. :)
btw, browsing through your pics website. Mind-blowing!
 
I had a copy of this book as a child -- if you can find your own copy, it might give you some additional ideas.

Looking back on it now as an adult, the trolley car as described in the book would probably have been an interurban, larger than what's depicted in this front cover illustration.

FLa93Zc.jpg
 
I had a copy of this book as a child -- if you can find your own copy, it might give you some additional ideas.

Looking back on it now as an adult, the trolley car as described in the book would probably have been an interurban, larger than what's depicted in this front cover illustration.

FLa93Zc.jpg

Very Interesting! Thanks, trainman74
 
I think for a family a railcar would be a perfect sized. It would take some getting used to in terms of how small a kitchen may be and such, but honestly, I think you could fit everything you need to live comfortably in a railcar. This sounds like an awesome idea, and now I'm looking at photos of houses/hotels like this.

I wonder if Amtrak would ever sell their viewliners, or if they'd scrap them like they scrapped the baggage cars?
 
I think for a family a railcar would be a perfect sized. It would take some getting used to in terms of how small a kitchen may be and such, but honestly, I think you could fit everything you need to live comfortably in a railcar. This sounds like an awesome idea, and now I'm looking at photos of houses/hotels like this.

I wonder if Amtrak would ever sell their viewliners, or if they'd scrap them like they scrapped the baggage cars?

Right. Even if it is not a primary home. Would make a super cool livable hangout spot (crash-pad) in the backyard. And yea viewliner is definitely a worthy candidate with its main door located right at the center of the car and the car is tall enough to even make it a two story place - with some creative thinking and hundreds of hard labor man hours to make it a reality of course. :)
do share links here if you come across something interesting during your search. Peace!
 
One thing about an old railcar versus an RV or mobile home...the railcar, especially if an old Pullman 12 wheeler heavyweight "battleship", would certainly be a whole lot more secure...and it would survive even the most violent of storms.;)
 
Hi. Have had this pipe dream of converting an Amtrak Viewliner or Dome or Sleeper/Lounge railcar into a home on a piece of land (permanent). Wondering if anyone here has done it or knows some one who has done it? Thanks.
The F45 mentioned is probably the Isaac Walton Inn's ol' GN441 in Essex, MT on the Empire Builder route converted to a guest room. They also have a couple of cabooses.
 
A thought just occurred to me this morning - How hard would it be to get our hands on a blueprint of the inner layout of different Amtrak railcars?
 
A thought just occurred to me this morning - How hard would it be to get our hands on a blueprint of the inner layout of different Amtrak railcars?

Not that hard. Most of the heritage equipment is in a single book that is floating around the internet in pdf form... I have a copy I could share with you, but am at work so don't have access to it at the moment. As for the current stuff, there are a handful of fleet information pdfs Amtrak has put out that have the layouts in them, usually as an appendix at the end.

peter
 
Not that hard. Most of the heritage equipment is in a single book that is floating around the internet in pdf form... I have a copy I could share with you, but am at work so don't have access to it at the moment. As for the current stuff, there are a handful of fleet information pdfs Amtrak has put out that have the layouts in them, usually as an appendix at the end.

peter
Thanks, Peter. That would be awesome! Also about the PDFs of the current fleet - could this be it? - http://www.highspeed-rail.org/Documents/PRIIA_Bi-Level_Spec_305-001_Approved_rev C.1.pdf
 
While that pdf does show the layouts of a coach and baggage car it doesn't show the layouts of sleeper lounge/sleeper/dome cars. May be there's other PDFs for those?
 
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