Railroad Buff’s Tours Evoke Old Elegance of Rails

David Rohr’s railroad empire sits on a siding in Monrovia. It consists of a 1955 dome liner, half interest in a 1949 lounge car and a leased, 26-berth sleeper built in 1956. His office is in the garage of his Fullerton home.

When he schedules a trip, Rohr hitches his railroad cars to Amtrak trains and helps clean and prepare his cars for the travel to and from their destination. He also goes along as tour guide.

“I see this as a beginning of a chance to bring back a part of the American railroading scene,” he said of his year-old train travel business venture, called The Golden Spike, “and to help re-create the elegance of train travel.”

He also sees it as a chance to make some money while having fun.

“I guess you could call me an entrepreneur,” said Rohr, 39, who holds an accounting degree from the University of Denver but feels his future is not in numbers. “Before I start thinking of anything else, I’m going to give the rail travel business my big effort.”

So far, Rohr hasn’t shown a profit. He is banking on satisfied passengers such as Leticia Deckbar of Santa Ana, to pass the word about the benefits of yesteryear’s slower-paced mode of transportation.

‘Throwback to Romance’

“I’ve always loved the sound of the train wheels clicking on the rails, the horn blaring from the locomotive and the passing countryside scene,” said Deckbar, a retired insurance supervisor. She boarded in Los Angeles recently for a four-day trip to and from the hot-air balloon fiesta in Albuquerque.

Lynn P. Reitnouer, former mayor of San Marino, chartered the sleeper-dining car for a ski trip to Salt Lake City with 13 couples. She described the vacation as “a throwback to convenience and service and romance. It was a corking good outing.”

Rohr feels he may crack the profit barrier once he finishes renovating his 1955 dome liner and puts it into service, probably in May. The 80-ton coach has a glass bubble observation deck. It once belonged to the Union Pacific Railroad.

The dome car cost $100,000, and Rohr said modernizing it may run another $20,000. A lot of the furnishings and equipment are in the side yard at his house, waiting to be installed.

“I do most of the work myself, and what I can’t do is usually done by retired train workers or current Amtrak employees,” said Rohr. He said his wife Judy, a librarian, also helps. “When we take a trip, I usually hire retired porters who also double as waiters.”

One thing in Rohr’s favor is the lack of competition in Orange County, although Tad Finley, of North Hollywood, who owns seven railroad cars and has operated a rail travel business for 34 years, suggests “it’s not going to be easy for him.”

High Storage Costs

For example, Finley said, in addition to fees of $50 to $75 monthly for storing each 85-foot-long rail car on a siding, there is a $500 charge just for hauling them to the Amtrak station in Los Angeles. It costs another $500 to bring them back.

The cost of hitching onto an Amtrak train, he added, varies from $1 a mile to $2.60 a mile, depending on the number of passengers added and distance traveled. Rohr feels the storage expenses can be sharply reduced by keeping his cars busy.

“Last year, we only had them out on trips 40 days,” he said. “This year, we’re looking for 85 days, and that saves a lot. We also learned that it costs less to keep them up if they’re on trips, rather them staying idle.

His newest brochure offers trips to New Orleans, Reno, Cheyenne and the Napa Valley, most of them related to some attraction, such as the balloon festival or the Mardi Gras.

Fares range from $150 to $165 daily per person.

Rohr is not alone in striving to offer rail travel as it once was, according to Houston attorney Paul DeVerter, president of the 330-member American Assn. of Private Railroad Car Owners.

About 20 in Business

DeVerter said few privately owned cars are used commercially, “but there are about 20 small entrepreneurs nationwide who own railroad cars and are willing to devote a lot of time to make train travel work for them. Most do it as a hobby and for fun, but some even make a living at it.”

Rohr hopes to be one of the latter, but he also feels he’s helping to preserve some of yesterday’s train lore.

“You know,” he complained, “they don’t even call out ‘all aboard’ any more.”