Greenbrier Presidential Express

[travelingengineer]

The luxury Greenbrier resort in WV has just announced yesterday the July 2012 inauguration of The Greenbrier Presidential Express, from Washington DC Union Station to White Sulphur Springs WV. Round-trip fare would be about $650, with the 15-car consist to include a VIP suite car (with private compartments), parlour cars, dining cars, and an "open car" car (with safety railings). Head-end equipment will be two diesel electric C39-8s. Frequency not mentioned in news article, to wit: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20110623/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_brief_greenbrier_train Sounds like a good way to restore not only luxury train travel (albeit quite short) as well as hotel occupancy.

[DaveVan51]

Well.....I may not ride it...but I'll be there day one to photo it. The resort is about 30 minutes from my house and I'll have to go down and see. From what I heard the train will turn and service at Roncevert a few miles west of WSS. Next step is to get #614 restored and pulling the train.....but many say that will never happen....but the cash those folks have....I'll never say never on that!

The WSS station is the first few pics in my travel log listed below at www.currtail.com  FYI

[bedell]

That fare seems pretty high until you check Amtrak for a sleeper on the same route.  The round trip roomette on the Cardinal between WAS and WSS is close to $600.  Coach of course is much less - under $100. 

Would be nice to see this outfit make it happen, but the history of high-end private rail service has been dismal in the last few years.  May they have success.

[NKP guy]

As a railfan, I'm glad to learn about this new luxury service because I like passenger trains of any kind, especially good-looking ones.

That being said, I note the predictable route of this service from Washington DC to the Greenbriar.  I say predictable because that's where the money and power to ride such a train is, and has been, since the Greenbriar was built.  But my vision of America is a place where the Greenbriar still exists, where the trains with luxury and private cars still go, but where the point of origin is Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco or some such city west of the Alleghenies.  

When that day dawns, I think we'll finally have the City on the Hill, instead of the City Inside the Beltway,  with its predictable, lamentable results.  

Anyway, good luck to this new venture in passenger train service.

[aegrotatio]

What will the train use for HEP?  The C39-8 doesn't seem to have HEP.

 

[NYCS-1]

As of yesterday, 16 September 2011, the train was waiting for one of the three Ross Rowland engines "in New Jersey" to be "completed". The pax cars are also being completed.

Also, the train will now run DC to Keeneland Kentucky once a day each way, with a single train set.

Questions:

Will DC and AMTRAK ever allow a regularly scheduled steam train to use Union Station?

There was no mention in the conversation as to the consist or what cars will be available for coverage. 15 cars was still mentioned as a possible train length.

Given the 50% on-time performance of the Cardinal how much will they pay CSX to get the train over the road on time?

[Dragoman]

DC to Louisville (of which Keeneland appears to be a suburb) is quite a distance -- doesn't look like a round-trip can be done in a day. 

Any details?  Source?

[blue streak 1]

NYCS-1

Given the 50% on-time performance of the Cardinal how much will they pay CSX to get the train over the road on time?

The worst problem of on time is the BBrRR. That is an old  C and O route that CSX leased out to the Buckingham Branch RR/.  BBrRR from Orange - Charlottesville - Clifton forge.

From Culpepper - Charlottesville on NS SCHEDULE time is 44 miles in 57 minutes, BBrRR SAME POINTS 1:15 - 1:20 47 miles.  Find that Cardinal almost never makes that time.

[NYCS-1]

Dragoman

DC to Louisville (of which Keeneland appears to be a suburb) is quite a distance -- doesn't look like a round-trip can be done in a day. 

Any details?  Source?

The information came from the Transportation Office at the Greenbrier. Though she didn't directly state it, that may be the reason she mentioned "three" steam locomotives. Does Rowland have three? I thought there were only two. If so, no one else was mentioned as a vendor/lessor for the third.

Pure speculation is that they'll cover the third set with diesels. I would suggest that 90%+ of the riders will not care if they have steam or not. as long as the bar car and diner are working. The underlying feel of her information was that this is going to be a "high roller" train to the casino and/or the race track at Keeneland.

It was the same when we took the Royal Scotsman, there were two "trainspotters" out of 32 people. Well 2 1/2 since my wife likes trains.

Another question: is CSX traffic dense enough on the route to inhibit passenger train speed limits? Or the engines speed limited? Most of the fan trips I've been on over the years haven't gone all that fast due to track limitations on the short lines, and traffic density on the mains.

[Juniatha]

Chances are The Third Man -uhm- steamer is the long awaited ACE 3000 ...

(sorry , I think not)

=  J =

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZZHq2JSnnE

[LNER4472]

The current Wikipedia entry for the Greenbrier Presidential Express states, with questionable provenance updated in the last 48 hours or so, that the entire project has been canceled by The Greenbrier's Joe Justice effective May 2012:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenbrier_Presidential_Express