Take a look at US Patent 3285194 "Combination Railway and Passenger Automobile Transportation Systems" invented by Deodat Clejan of General American Transportation Corporation http://www.google.com/patents/US3285194 (you have undoubtedly seen GATX on the side of tank cars and other railway cars).
Clejan, a Roumanian emigre (Web references mistakenly give his origin as France), was the inventor of one of the systems of truck trailer piggyback on railroad flatcars. RRollway, an HSR auto ferry was supposed to be the next big thing after that. He died in a small plane crash -- I remember when Dad came into the kitchen with that sad news -- and I guess the dream died with him.
The key feature of RRollway is a purpose-built wide-gauge wide-body railroad line and train cars that allow random access at stops by driving cars on and off sideways. If you are building an HSR from scratch, why stop at standard gauge and why be constrained to the usual loading gauge? Also, an electric HSR will have so much power that Interstate-type grades are not a problem. The idea is to follow the terrain instead of worrying about "water-level railway lines", and I think the French do some of that with their TGV.
Among the documents I have from Dad's garage are dimensions of 1960's era automobiles. I immediately knew what that was about -- the RRollway project and how wide to build the train.
The other "vintage" aspect of RRollway was saving space by allowing entry/exit from only one side of your automobile. Back then, bench seats were common place. Nowadays you can pretty much slide in and out of one side for the back seat, but the fashion is for bucket seats and between-seat consoles. I think it is really hard for the driver to enter a car from the passenger side.
After Clejan's passing, Dad (V. Milenkovic) patented concepts for a car ferry using standard-gauge rails. One concept was for a wide-body side-loading car ferry but with a low center of gravity, where the car bays would be between the wheels of an articulated train with shared trucks between train cars. Another concept was for a double deck end-loaded car carrier, but the auto bay was on a Flexi-van style turntable, that allowed access to autos on individual rail cars without having to switch cars in and out of the train. I think there was a "What's New" feature in Popular Science/Popular Mechanics depicting that auto carrier.
My contribution to "the dream" was to go with smaller and especially much shorter cars, mainly to allow drive-on drive-off side loading of a railway auto ferry, without going overboard on expanding the loading gauge. I was an avid reader of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science and had seen depictions of the hatchback style automobile in the concept stage. I still have a balsa wood car model that looks remarkably like a VW Rabbit (now Golf) that I built, maybe as much as 7 years before that car was sold in the U.S..
My car design was a lot wider than the subcompact hatchback design that came to the market some years later. The idea was for a 6-passenger "family car" but one that was short rather than being strictly a small car. That car model, by the way, was an expression of my interest in railroad trains, if you are following my reasoning back then.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
When Auto Train was a private company they tried a second Auto Train between Chicago and Florida. It didn't pay. Amtrak never tried it. While carrying private vehicles would probably not work between every station there could be cities where it would not be impossible.
Passengers on the Overland between Melbourne, Victoria, and Adelaide, South Australia, can take their personal vehicle on the train. The train runs three times a week in both directions. The cost ranges from $142 to $191 AUD. Vehicles can only be carried from end point to end point. The car carrier is located at the back of the train.
Passengers on the Ghan, which runs once or twice a week, depending on the season, between Adelaide and Darwin, can take their car from Adelaide to Alice Springs or on to Darwin and vice versa. Prices range from $204 to $1,067 AUD. The train stops in Alice Springs for more than four hours, so there is ample time to off load vehicles bound for the Springs and load cars for Darwin or Adelaide.
Passengers on the Indian Pacific, which runs from Sydney to Perth, can take a personal vehicle from Sydney to Perth or Adelaide; Adelaide passengers can take a personal vehicle from there to Sydney or Perth and vice versa. The Indian Pacific runs once or twice a week depending on the time of the year. The cost ranges from $235 to $1,135 AUD depending on the distance and size of the vehicle. This train lays over in Adelaide for more than three hours, so there is plenty of time to off load and load vehicles.
The Great Southern Railway, which is investor own, receives some subsidies from the Australian federal government. It has been offering the option to transport personal vehicles on its premier trains since at least 1999. Apparently it generates enough revenue to make the effort worthwhile.
The Great Southern Railway is not a government operation. This is one of the reasons for the innovation. And one of the reasons for only running the trains when there is a demand for them rather than for political reasons.
You'd need a car carrier for every pairing of stops and have to break the train at each stop the number of times you have pairings. How loud can you scream "nightmare"? It might work with enough cars between maybe three or four city pairs over a 1000 mile distance, but it really would be a logistical and operating headache. Every stop would be at least a half hour for switiching out or unloading/loading. Marketablity shot before you start.
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
The B&O in the late 60's tried transporting autos in regular passenger service - with a remarkable lack of success.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Unless you are going for an extended length of time, it is cheaper to rent a car at your destination than it would be to ship your own. The dwell time at each station to load and unload vehicles would be a major drain on the schedule.
Now if there is something special about your vehicle that makes you need that vehicle at the destination, that would be different.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
The Auto Train is a great idea, but why can't all passenger trains have a single level auto carrier (box car) to carry a personal auto as excess baggage to passengers holding tickets for travel? I would take the train if I could have my car to get around once I got to my destination, either for work or vacation. (I'm a freelance cameraman, video).
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