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Fremont Dinner Train on the move
this is great news. The Dinner Train should be well patronized. We will be among those hungry souls eagerly awaiting the “All Aboard.”
Somehow I find the reasoning behind using trucks to be a bit disconcerting. If the rail is already in place, why would it not be beneficial to upgrade it, which would provide a future offset to the difference in cost.
Shipping rail cars by truck.
Because it was cheaper.
ok.
It’s sad that the connecting track is so bad that it can’t be used. Maybe some money could be used to improve the track conditions for the future, or is the Fremont & Elkhorn Valley calling it quits?
The track was not owned by the dinner train. The track owners saw no need for upgrading the track so would not pay for it. Dinner Train owners are leaving Nebraska due to the track owners not keeping up with the maintenance on the line they were using. Trucking the cars does makes economic sense. The group I’m with trucked a steam locomotive this summer for similar reasons. Was cheaper and faster.
I’m assuming the cost of upgrading the track to make it safe for the move PLUS the charges Union Pacific and BNSF would charge to move the equipment was higher than just trucking them.
This isn’t the first instance of passenger rail equipment being moved to an operating location by truck. When BART was getting ready to get up and running, their cars were all delivered by truck, thanks to their engineering people’s insistance on such a wide track gauge.
Pretty much the dinner train was the only one using the line. Weeds and brush were so bad that you couldn’t see the track in most places. I think speed was limited to 5 mph. They kept cutting back the travel distance because of the deterioration of the line. 100k to fix a line just to get the cars off is high. A lot cheaper to hire a crane from Omaha to lift them out. Rode the train several times and really did enjoy it. Nebraska’s loss.