Vintage Railroad Cars Recall the Grand Old Days Along the Tracks

Despite dirt and fumes, there’s no finer vantage point than the rear observation platform of the last car, watching the countryside unfold to the rhythmic clickety-clack of steel wheels over rail joints.

And that’s where passengers gather on the stainless-steel, domed Budd car that brings up the rear of Amtrak’s No. 11, The Coast Starlight, as it begins its 28-hour journey down the West Coast on a sunny October afternoon.

It is the inaugural run for the newly rebuilt Sierra Hotel, one of several hundred individually owned private train cars that are enjoying a renaissance, rising from the scrap yards to grace the rails once again with their stately splendor. In its heyday, the car carried passengers on the California Zephyr.

For owner Doug Ebert, 43, a Chicago-based airline pilot, the trip fulfills a long-held belief this genteel mode of travel must not fade into obsolescence.

“In college, I was a cook on the Great Northern Railroad’s Empire Builder, part of the last generation to experience passenger-train travel as it once was,” he said.

As The Coast Starlight ambles south, the car’s vista dome offers an unobstructed view of the Cascade Range’s snow-peaked mountains, bathed in the glow of the setting sun. An elegant dinner is served on white linen tablecloths, with heavy flatware.

“This is the reason I’ve gone through all this,” says Ebert, smiling as he sips a Chardonnay.

A dense early-morning fog shrouds the fields as the train rolls into the Sacramento station. Night has passed quickly. The Sierra Hotel’s passengers, lulled to sleep hours before by the train’s motion, begin to stir in the comfortable berths of their tiny private bedrooms.

California’s changing scenery provides the day’s entertainment, while the train wends through fertile valleys. By mid-afternoon, the tracks leave the parched hills to hug the Pacific Ocean near San Luis Obispo. At last, the skyline of downtown Los Angeles appears.

There the Sierra Hotel and a caravan of cars from around the country are readied for the trip to San Diego, site of the 12th annual convention of the American Assn. of Private Railroad Car Owners.

The association, about a third of its 540 members actively running cars, was formed in 1977 to provide a mechanism for working with Amtrak. Private cars pay Amtrak about $2 million a year in mileage, switching and parking fees.

“We are highly dependent on Amtrak for movement, and must respond to its equipment standards,” says membership chairman Larry Haines. Most private cars run almost exclusively on Amtrak trains, but a few occasionally operate on freight and private lines.

An empty San Diego train yard has suddenly become a museum of beautifully restored private cars, as crews hose the dust off the cars’ sides and polish their brass rails. Formerly the exclusive domain of Presidents, railroad executives and the very wealthy, private cars, or “private varnishes,” have gone mainstream.

Today’s owners, bound by a passion for railroads and a commitment to preserving this link with the past, often borrow heavily to finance their dreams. Many have the ability to do much of the restoration and maintenance themselves.

Although a few reserve their cars for private use, most owners occasionally charter them to help offset their investment ($125,000 and up for a car that qualifies to run on Amtrak).

“I don’t know anyone who makes a profit,” says Haines. “Some, if they have the time to devote to it, operate intensively and will claim to break even.” Chartering fees range from $1,000 to $3,000 a day.

As twilight falls over San Diego, lanterns suspended from dozens of observation platforms cast a welcome glow throughout the train yard. Fold-down steps usher visitors from car to car, while well-dressed owners and crew proffer drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

If any car there retains the spirit of its previous owners, it is the Virginia City, whose ramblings were chronicled by the late bon vivant journalist Lucius Beebe three decades ago.

Decorated by a Hollywood set designer in the mid-1950s, it epitomizes baroque opulence, with crystal chandeliers, gold-leaf trim, and imported Venetian Renaissance furniture.