All of us have our own particular story of when we discovered our love for travel. For me it happened during a thirty day train trip across the United States when I was a kid. Yes, travel by plane can hopefully make your trip a little faster, but this experience gave me the wonderful opportunity to see most of our beautiful country much more closely through the huge windows of Amtrak’s dome cars.

Whether it was the small buttes of Montana or the flat cornfields of Iowa or the deserts of New Mexico, it was amazing to watch the changing topography swiftly glide by. And it was that month long adventure that filled me with the passion for exploration that has lasted my whole life.

While most of us take Amtrak by regular or, if we’re lucky,business class, there are those of us who have mastered the art of riding the rails in style by traveling in their own private rail car. As one conductor explained, this is in essence like traveling by your own personal yacht, but on land. The owners purchase the cars and can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to convert them as they see fit within regulations. They then take their friends, family, or paid passengers to New York City and other destinations by, along with other requirements, entering into an agreement with Amtrak to attach or couple it to a regularly scheduled train.

Borden Black, Director of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners Inc. (http://www.aaprco.com), noted that many privately owned cars are stationed in Chicago so that they can more easily travel east or west of the country.  Those who wish to remain closer to the Northeast have also stayed at the Sunnyside Yard in NYC.  This association provides an extensive  trove of information about owning a private rail car including great descriptions of  the various types that are available (http://www.aaprco.com/ownership/AAPRCO_intro_v26.pdf).

Riding one of these kings and queens of the rails was definitely on my bucket list so Robert and I were delighted to be invited by Lovett Smith and his charming wife Barbara to travel on their private Pullman Palace Car, the New York Central 3 ( http://www.nyc-3.com).

Built in 1928 by Harold Vanderbilt who used it as an office, this elegant yet comfortable car is now used to charter train trips to such places as Washington D.C., Savannah, Montreal, and New York City. The brochure for Smith’s company,Varchandra, Inc., provides the  car’s present layout that includes four staterooms, a dining room, solarium lounge, kitchen, two showers and four toilets  (http://www.nyc-3.com/Varchandra.pdf).

The train was coming from Manhattan’s Penn Station, and Robert and I were to be picked up in Hudson. We traveled from Albany to Hudson by train earlier that morning and, after a small visit to that area, we made our way back to the station to watch as crowds oohed and aahed as the New York Central 3 came rolling in at the end of the Amtrak train.

On board, we met a friendly group of casually dressed passengers who had already gotten on in NYC and Croton Harmon to ultimately make their way to Montreal, Canada. A maximum of sixteen people are permitted on a day trip and eight with a staff of two are allowed for overnights.

As we sat in the car’s lovely dining room, Lovett explained that he was happy to accommodate the needs and desires of these who chartered trips on his car ranging from having dinners with chefs who’ve had White House clearance to less formal dinners to even more casual meals where the travelers have helped out in the kitchen.  He generally likes the trip to consist of one group that knows each other because he feels that chemistry can make or break the experience. However,when needed, he has scheduled different groups to travel to a specific destination.

As much as we enjoyed this elegant experience, the best part of this visit was saved for last: a ride in one of the 4 seats in the back of the car’s open rear platform.  You’d think by now with all of the travel experiences that I’ve mentioned before and all of the times I’ve traveled by train that I’d consider this as simply a pleasant divergence.  But wow! This was so great. I felt like a kid, thrilled as we sped towards Albany. While the car can travel at speeds up to 110 mph, passengers are permitted to remain in this area when the  train is traveling at up to 80 mph-still pretty fast from where I was sitting. 

 

Days later we had the opportunity to take another look at the New York Central 3 because it had passed its required inspection at the Albany-Rensselaer Train Station. It was interesting to learn that this is one of the few locations in the country that can provide the special diagnostics to accommodate this type car.

Wonderful experiences and I hope to spend more time on this and other private railroad cars in the future.