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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2021 11:35 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
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Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
One another question: did any r.r. used atypical automobile cars, meaning the automobiles beeing loaded and unloaded sideways (like at a normal freight car) not on the end of the car. I've seen pictures with something like this, but I'm not sure if they where standard cars or they just delivered the car.

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2021 12:51 pm 

Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:02 pm
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Location: Back in NE Ohio
There were unconventional car transport systems, usually fairly short-lived. One specific system was developed in the early 1970s for shipping the then-new Chevrolet Vega from the Lordstown, Ohio GM factory. It loaded the cars vertically in rows on either side of the boxcar-like auto carrier, kind of like hanging meat, only secured all around.


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2021 12:09 am 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
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Location: Philadelphia, PA
There were also boxcars specialized for moving automobiles before the 1950's.

These were mostly 40' and 50' cars, had double-width doors with a double-width opening and were often labelled "AUTOMOBILES." There were racks inside so youi could fit four autos in the car. The autos loaded on their own wheels through the double opening. In its day, it was the most common way of moving automobiles by rail. However, it became more efficient to move them by highway trailer.

In the late 1950's railroads moved automobiles from the assembly plants to the dealers by loading automobile trailers on TOFC flatcars. At the destinations, the trailers were taken off the flatcars and the automobiles moved by highway. Auto racks replaced these.

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2021 9:37 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
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Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
They still delivered cars on the train in the '60's or I am wrong?
With those boxcars you could take your car from point A to point B if you didn't want to drive and rent a car or such service never extisted before the advent of the "Autotrain"?

Did the working condition of the "Pullman" employees started to improve in the '30's?

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2021 9:52 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:53 pm
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The autos in boxcar service of the 40s and 50s was primarily for manufacturers to move new autos to distribution points. In the 1960s, the industry started building the specialized auto carrier cars, which have evolved into those that are used today.

In the 1960s, Baltimore and Ohio briefly offered a service similar to the (later) Auto Train. They placed personal automobiles on flatcars, and moved them in passenger trains.


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2021 10:10 am 

Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:02 pm
Posts: 1742
Location: Back in NE Ohio
John Redden wrote:
In the 1960s, Baltimore and Ohio briefly offered a service similar to the (later) Auto Train. They placed personal automobiles on flatcars, and moved them in passenger trains.


On one occasion when I was a kid in the late 1960s, I was at Akron Union Station watching the early evening B&O train to DC come through town (I'm sure someone here could tell me which train it was) with a bi-level auto rack on the rear with two or three automobiles. So it wasn't just flat cars. That experiment was the idea of future Amtrak president Paul Reistrup, then head of C&O/B&O passenger service.


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2021 10:23 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
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Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
But on what route did you see this kind of cars?

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2021 12:50 pm 

Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:02 pm
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Location: Back in NE Ohio
The B&O mainline between Chicago and Washington, DC.


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:52 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
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Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
I wondered how many people used it and what made them use it.
What was the most luxurios train that your ever ride in U.S.A.?

An intresting picture.


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Tue Jun 01, 2021 2:34 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
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Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
The photo you posted is of the FAUR "Quarter Horse," a one-off demonstrator exported to the USA by Stanray Corp. on behalf of Romanian company FAUR (translation: "Consolidated Rolling Stock Factory). It was a diesel-hydraulic 1,250 hp (approximately) switcher with a Sulzer engine and Voith transmission. It demonstrated for a couple years but was never ordered, and the demonstrator was finally sold to Washington Terminal in 1978.


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Wed Jun 02, 2021 5:11 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
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Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
Oh, I do see you know it's history. I thought it was unkwon to most enthusiasts. But did they made spare part for it in U.S.A. or imported them from Romania. As far as I know, the locomotive still extists. Oh, as far as I know thos type of locos are having "Maybach" licenced engines... there are common in Romania for shunting purposes.

In U.S.A. there was the posibility to buy tickets from the train without paying an extra-fare?

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Wed Jun 02, 2021 9:23 am 

Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:24 pm
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Fares on Amtrak, should be purchased in advance, if you purchase onboard with the exception of capitol corridor trains, it must be done in cash and is the full fare no discounts. Cash fares are not being accepted at this time because of Covid.

You're best to buy online or via a kiosk or in advanced online is the best.


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Wed Jun 02, 2021 3:40 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
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Location: Philadelphia, PA
The Washington Terminal Company bought the FAUR LDH 125 "Quarter Horse" locomotive but I don't think they got much use out of it. It was really too light to handle USA equipment. W. T. Co. painted it in their solid blue paint.

It was a diesel-hydraulic with a Sulzer engine and a Voith hydraulic transmission. Since it was the only such locomotive in North America, I'm sure all parts had to come from Europe.

After its time at W. T. Co. it found its way to a car repair company in the former Lehigh Valley shop at Sayre PA, whereit was scrapped in the late 1980's.

Back in the olden days, if there were no Ticket Agent or Clerk at the station at the time the train departed, passengers paid on the train with no penalty but if there were a Ticket Agent or Clerk on duty, the passenger had to pay a penalty over the applicable fare.

It was not called an extra fare.

Local transit agencies (including commuter railroads) are operated independently and have fare rules unique to each agency. If they accept cash on the vehicle at all, the fare is almost always higher than a prepaid fare.

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 7:14 am 

Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:51 pm
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Location: Bucureşti, Capitala României / Bucharest, Capital of Romania
So that locomotive wasn't preserved...

But in the days before "Amtrak" the thing with the ticket agent from the station was also in practice? In Romania most company do make you pay extra, except for one who ask only a small sum of money if you buy on board. I wonder if in U.S.A. there where corrupt train master/ticket controlers, like in Romania. Corrupt, like that's say the ride is 50 U.S.D., but you give the ticket controler 25 U.S.D. and you ride the train, get no ticket and he kepts the money for himslef. In Romania we have a word for this - "a călători cu nauşul" = "to ride withe godfather" and it's happening since XIXth century (well, I don't if there was the term "godfather" back then). Corruption is big, because normally not only the ticket controlers get the money.
But I guess in Union Stations there where different ticket places for different companies.
But can you upgrade the ticket during the ride - let's say for eg you own a 2nd class ticket and want to go to 1st - you have to pay extra besides the fare?
Why some companies wanted to have extra fare trains? Some, like the nice "Great Nothern" didn't, but some did.

In U.S.A. you didn't had compartments (not in the meaning of a type of room from a sleeping car), but I did see in "Mickey Mouse" magazines that trains had compartments. How come? They drawing redisgned for the Europanen market or the author was inspired by Europeanen trains?

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 Post subject: Re: A few questions
PostPosted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 8:14 am 

Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:02 pm
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Location: Back in NE Ohio
I don't know if it's still true in the internet age, but Amtrak conductors could upgrade passengers en route from coach to sleeper if there was a room available. If they did so, they notified the reservation center of the sale at the next manned station. Crews called it "stepping them up" when I was there. Also, yes Amtrak had a theft issue over time with conductors pocketing cash fares, one reason they wanted to go to as totally cashless a fare system as possible.


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