Travel by train has always held a fascination for many people. There was a golden age before the Second World War when deluxe service aboard the train attracted not only the rich and famous, but the average traveler as well. In many places, the train was the only way to get there from anywhere.
The parlor-lounge car at the rear of a streamlined passenger train. From the collection of Roger Colton
For long distance travel, trains were the way to go in those days before the interstate highways or jet airliners. Once on board the train, you could expect the same kind of service found in world class hotels, and be certain to receive it.
Some travelers took this to the next level by having their own private railroad cars built for their exclusive use. The Pullman Company would gladly create just the right atmosphere for you to enjoy the passing panorama from. Captains of industry and families of old money all could be found at the playgrounds of the nation (such as White Sulphur Springs or Pacific Grove) aboard their private railroad cars. And if having a car at your beck and call wasn’t required, the Pullman Company maintained a fleet of cars just for charter, with a staff ready to meet your every need.
The war put a strain on the American railroads like never before. Every piece of equipment that could roll was put into service. Some of the private cars were converted to other uses including hospital cars to carry home the wounded and those who gave their lives in defense of their country.
After the war, railroads offered a renaissance of passenger travel. New cars and locomotives were colorful, streamlined, sleek and attractive lures to entice passengers back to the rails. Even Disney got into the act when it partnered with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe to promote Disneyland with package tours. Dining car menus aboard the Union Pacific’s Streamliner “City of Los Angeles” offered views of the Park and noted easy bus connections from downtown LA to the Park.
But the competition from the automobile and the jet airplane was too strong, and passenger trains were doomed to fall into oblivion. In 1971, the railroads got out of the passenger business, with the creation of Amtrak by the Federal government. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation has always been a political hot potatoe, and funding from one year to another has never been a sure thing. Today’s ongoing battle between Amtrak’s management and the Administration is just the latest in a long line of conflicts.
Service was a hallmark aboard passenger trains the world over at one time.
This vintage advertisement is from the United Kingdom’s London and North Eastern Railway (home to the famed Flying Scotsman train and steam locomotive of the same name!) From the collection of Roger Colton
Railroads have long held a fascination for many people. As a symbol of westward expansion, they offered young boys the lure of the West and the thrill of tales told of brave locomotive engineers.
A great example of how that lure works: Thanks to the luck of ancestry, I come from a family where railroading was a career. My great-grandfather went to work for the Southern Pacific as a locomotive fireman in December of 1900 in Wadsworth, Nevada. His train service took him east across the state following the route of the transcontinental railroad. As he told it, things were much as they had been in 1869. The railroad ran on ties that sat in the alkali dirt where they had been placed over thirty years before and the locomotives pulling the trains were not that much different either. Wood had given way to coal as a fuel, and soon would be replaced by oil (plentiful and cheap from California along the lines of the Southern Pacific).
My first ride in a diesel locomotive with him and my father at the age of 3 in the Sparks, Nevada yard of the Espee. The thrill of being handed up to the cab and peering out the windows as we rolled along is something I will always remember. Had I been born fifty years earlier, there can be no doubt that I would have followed him in a railroad career. Alas, that was not the case, and instead briefly considered it when graduating from high school. I discovered the California Railway Museum at Rio Vista Junction (not to be confused with the California State Railroad Museum, in Sacramento) enjoying the hobby instead of the job.
I volunteered for all kinds of tasks. Sold tickets, worked in the bookstore, planned special events, handled marketing duties, repaired track, interpreted the museum for guests as a docent, ran electric streetcars, even diesel and steam locomotives in maintenance and passenger service. But what seems to have served me best was working aboard the train. First as conductor and later as part of the team that provided lounge car service aboard two Pullman cars from the 1920’s.
There were good teachers all along, but especially so when it came to the lounge car service. Using the standards set by the Pullman Company, we recreated the levels of service once enjoyed by passengers. Offering beverages and snacks to the first class passengers was how it started. Eventually, we worked our way up to full dinner service with a wedding party for 75 guests. (Since then, we’ve applied our talents at other museums for occasional events.)
Sadly, things changed at the Rio Vista Junction, and we no longer had a place to ply our skills. Since 1985, I had been able to occasionally “take my act on the road” by chartering a private railroad car for excursions with friends. Just about the same time as the last train ran at the museum, the opportunity arose for a trip on behalf of a group of folks from Pixar.
The Dome Lounge “Plaza Santa Fe”, a veteran of service on the famed “Super Chief” between Los Angeles and Chicago. Photo by Dasha Clancey
It’s “Dinner in the Diner” at the Joshua Tree & Southern Railroad Museum!
Waiter Jeff Ferris and Steward Roger Colton make preparations aboard the former Denver & Rio Grande dining car, “Castle Peak”, before seating begins in November of 2000. Photo by Chris Allan
The project they were working on was supposedly about to wrap and they wanted a way to celebrate. What began as a trip by Amtrak from LA to New Orleans became a private car trip from Emeryville to Reno/Sparks instead. That was back in 1995, and we have done a trip a year for them and others each year since. We have one more trip planned for February 2003.
That first Pixar trip was aboard a former Canadian National touring car named “Burrard”. Built by Pullman for CN in 1954, it was one of two cars used for special groups and VIP’s. Some of the more notable trains they were used for included Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip during their visit to open the St. Lawrence Seaway, and Princess Margaret during a state visit. Buster Keaton used the sister car “Bedford” for a trip across Canada during the production of a short (“The Railrodder”) for the National Film Board of Canada.
It’s the Pixar crowd on that first trip, with the private car, “Burrard” in the falling snow at Sparks, Nevada. From left to right: Mike Quinn, Charles Keagle, Dan Jeup, Ken Mitchroney, Natasha (not a Pixar employee), Steve Boyett, and Jon Mead. Photo from the collection of Roger Colton
One thing led to another and we started working trips aboard the “Burrard” from time to time. Eventually, I decided that a business was needed to handle the financial end of things and hence, Private Car Service began.
So… How do we start? It all begins with the client. We’ve done trips for as few as five people and as many as one hundred and twenty five. Based on what the client has in mind, we go looking for a car to charter. Surprisingly, there are many different types of cars available for charter and at reasonable prices. (A national organization, the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners or AAPRCO, has worked with Amtrak to establish a tariff for private railroad car moves behind Amtrak trains. They also established mechanical standards that must be met in order to operate a car.)
Working with the car owner, we schedule the charter for the client. Amtrak will carry private cars on most of its trains, but will only allow switching of the cars into and out of trains at designated locations. So, once we know where we’re going, we plan accordingly.
As we live in the San Francisco Bay Area, we tend to run trips based out of Amtrak’s Oakland facility. From here, we can go east to Chicago, north to Seattle and south to Los Angeles. We can also travel on trains in the Capitol Corridor between San Jose and Sacramento or down the San Joaquin Valley to Bakersfield.
On another trip, Jeff Pidgeon enjoys a comfortable seat on the observation platform crossing the Sierra Nevada aboard the “Burrard”. Photo from the collection of Roger Colton
The most popular destination we that we travel to is Reno, Nevada. From Emeryville, we go on the back of the “California Zephyr” (which is headed for Chicago). The car we have chartered is added to the train in the Oakland Coach Yard. It’s about a seven-hour trip to Reno where the passengers disembark for their hotels in downtown Reno. The car continues on to Sparks (just east of Reno) where Amtrak changes train crews (engineers and conductors, who by federal law may not work more than 12 hours on duty). The Union Pacific (now) operates a freight yard here and we have one of their yard crews remove the car from the Amtrak train and spot it for storage overnight. The next morning, the car is turned (if needed) and placed on the train bound for Emeryville.
The level of service aboard is again determined by what the client wants. We offer everything from simple snack and beverage service to full sit-down meals using vintage railroad dining car china, silver and linens. A single car, like the “Burrard” seats 16 comfortably. It has a single dining room table that can seat 8 to 10 at a time. A leisurely lunch can be enjoyed in two groups. For larger groups, additional cars can be used to provide more dining seats.
Another trip aboard the “Burrard” with the usual suspects, from left to right: Ken Mitchroney, Bud Luckey, Jeff Pidgeon, Steve Boyett. Photo from the collection of Roger Colton
Our staff is at the ready to meet the service needs of our passengers. Dressed in proper railroad uniforms, they offer passengers the kind of service made legendary by the crews of such famous trains as the “Daylight”, “Zephyr” or the “Chief”. Some of them were part of the crew from the railroad museum, and others have joined us to see what it was all about. We all enjoy the chance to provide an experience our passengers won’t soon forget.
A view of the Truckee River from the Observation Platform. Photo from the collection of Roger Colton
A story is told of a society dowager who was to travel to New York City. Considering her options, she decided upon the train. However, she was not to travel with the common passenger. Instead, she was provided with a private railroad car and staff to meet her every need.
When the train arrived in New York City, she was met by reporters from the society columns of the city’s newspapers. One inquired about her trip, asking how she found travel by private railroad car. She replied that “It was something to which one could easily become accustomed to.”
That’s our goal.
About the Author or “So… who is this guy, anyway?”
Roger Colton is a member of a pioneer family. Both sides of his family tree contain ancestors who came to the West for a variety of reasons. One notable left England in search of a new life having apprenticed in the trades of both a stone mason and a brewer. Others left the career as miners in Nova Scotia, only to end up in the Silver State doing the same thing. Another took his family to eastern Oregon to try his hand at farming. Ironically, another found prosperity in dairy farming along California’s Central Coast.
His grandfathers have their share of tales to tell as well. One great-grandfather left the life of a vaquero and went railroading (hence this tale). His maternal grandfather went to two Rose Bowl games as the quarterback for the Stanford football team under the legendary coach Pop Warner.
Courtesy of the US Army, Roger was born just before Christmas of 1958 in the Luftwaffe Hospital in Wiesbaden, West Germany. His father was a GI attached to the first Mobile Missile deployment to the European Theater. His mother worked in the Air Force weather office. (2001 saw a return visit and tour of the Rhine along with other parts of Germany and Austria.)
His first train ride was in West Germany. In the US, his first train experience was the ride in the cab of the diesel locomotive with his father and great-grandfather. Living on the San Francisco peninsula, he watched trains of the Southern Pacific, including the last years of the famed “Coast Daylight”.
His first Disney experience came in the summer of 1965 with a family visit to the “Happiest Place on Earth”. Notable firsts included Club 33 in 1997, Walt Disney World and the Adventurer’s Club in 1999 (Kongaloosh!), and Disney’s California Misadventure in 2001. He is currently a Disneyland Annual Passholder, but don’t hold that against him.
As a child of the mass media age (once related to Marshall MacLuhan by an uncle’s marriage), Roger has produced videos for community access television on railroading and air racing. He has been published photographs and articles in national magazines. Between 1989 and 2000, he was a Community Leader for America Online, responsible for the Television Viewers community. Among the fandoms he supported were The X-Files, Quantum Leap and Space: Above & Beyond.
Married to wife, Michele, since 1986, there are no children, just the furry child “Cruiser”, (a demanding, orange lump of a cat) to dominate his home life. Both Roger and Michele are currently employed by the California State Automobile Association. Roger has been with Automotive Services since 1979, and Michele with Travel since 1998.
Private Car Service can be reached by e-mail: pullman@privatecarservice.net or by phone at (925) 321-0023. Their web pages at located at www.privatecarservice.net
A final public excursion from Emeryville to Reno will be operated February 1 & 2, 2003. Details are available on the website.