Private Car Trip: CHI-LAP September 9-11, 2016

I am helping to put together a private railcar excursion, in conjunction with "Zephyr Route" and Iowa Pacific. We only have 8 seats left... so before we totally sell out... I wanted to offer up the trip to anyone who might be interested on the Amtrak Unlimited Forum.

It will be with "Prairie View"... an ex-Great Northern full-length dome car. We will ride from Chicago to La Plata on the back of the Southwest Chief on Friday, September 9th... leaving Chicago at 3PM and arriving in La Plata, MO around 8PM. Free transfer to the hotel. You will get 2 nights at the rail-themed Depot Inn & Suites there in La Plata, MO. On Saturday, September 10th enjoy a narrated van tour of Northeast Missouri. We'll hit several railfan spots around town and the county... other stops will be at the Walt Disney Boyhood Farm in Marceline and an Amish Bakery and General Store. We will cap off the night with a cookout of burgers at the Railfan Lookout Point. On Sunday, September 11th... you will board the dome in La Plata around 10AM and return to Chicago around 3PM.

Price per person, double occupancy at the hotel is $699.

That's actually a pretty good deal, as Amtrak round-trip in coach can be as much as $250 for CHI-LAP-CHI on the Chief. Two nights at the Depot Inn can cost around $250 as well. Here you get meals on the dome, narration on the dome, and a guided tour of Missouri.

Again, only 8 seats remain. For more information contact Mike Abernethy at (630) 542-3607 or [email protected]

630.542.360

A disclaimer after some moderators on this forum apparently thought that I had a financial gain from this post and it was briefly removed:

For more than 10 years now (about the same length I have been a forum member), I have volunteered our time doing narration for Amtrak and the National Park Service... and more recently volunteering narrating on private railcars through the non-profit 501(c-3) American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation's Rail Rangers program. You can check us out at www.railrangers.org. The key here is... non-profit and volunteering our time. My wife and I are not paid, nor have we ever been paid, for our services for doing our narration work by either Amtrak, NPS, or the APRHF.

Just wanted to make that very clear to whoever needs to know. I am just passing information along about these cool once-in-a-lifetime trips so folks who are interested might come along and get to experience a fun weekend.

My bet is that the PV will continue to Kansas City, where it will be removed from #3 and then added to #4 after two nights storage in Kansas City.