# Dome cars for the Downeaster?



## DSS&A (Sep 24, 2019)

Iowa Pacific is sellong 6 full length dome cars as a part of a sell-off of 33 locomotives and passenger cars. So, people wishing for a full length dome car to operate on a Downeaster train, NNEPRA and others have an opportunity to buy a dome car. Here's a link to the seller's website:

https://ozarkmountainrailcar.com/railEquipmentGrid.php?search=VFI


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## Acela150 (Sep 24, 2019)

The buff in me wishes he could buy some of the E's and F's as well as the ALCO's.


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## Anderson (Sep 25, 2019)

If I had to pick who I'd hope would grab these, the order is roughly:
-New York State (for the _Adirondack_)
-California (for the single-level _Surfliner _set)
-New England (for the _Downeaster_)

I actually wish Amtrak would buy a pair for the _Cardinal, _but that's obviously not likely.


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## Seaboard92 (Sep 25, 2019)

Those cars are not worth the money they are wanting. 

Each one needs significant work to be made decent. I was talking with the CP office car guys the other day and even they won’t touch them. Of course they have a brand new (well to them) dome car themselves. I don’t know who will save the IPH domes. I do know this no scrapper will buy them. Not at that price. Drop the price to 175k for the work that’s needed.


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## bratkinson (Sep 25, 2019)

WHO will pay Amtrak to run with the car? WHO will pay for all maintenance? And switching fees? WHO will pay for possibly an extra crew member account union agreements?

It's fun to dream about, but until a continuing, reliable funding source can be found, it won't happen.


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## DSS&A (Sep 25, 2019)

Anderson said:


> If I had to pick who I'd hope would grab these, the order is roughly:
> -New York State (for the _Adirondack_)
> -California (for the single-level _Surfliner _set)
> -New England (for the _Downeaster_)
> ...



I would think Grand Canyon Railway might consider adding one more to their fleet for additional Premium Service, if the price was right.


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## railiner (Sep 25, 2019)

Here's what I heard....Walt Disney Company is going to buy up all the domes they can get, and run them between WDW and Port Canaveral cruise ship terminal, for their customer's, when the new railway opens....

What's that you say? It's not April First?.....oh...never mind....


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## jis (Sep 25, 2019)

Specially considering they will have to teach those cars to swim across Indian River and Banana River - a no mean feat in and of itself


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## Seaboard92 (Sep 25, 2019)

Like I said whomever buys those cars has a lot of work ahead of them. And none of their stuff is priced right. I even know of one class one who has considered impounding a car for unpaid debt in the past. And the amount of debt IPH has should tell you these cars aren’t well maintained.


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## jis (Sep 26, 2019)

IPH seems to have left a long trail of parties that were cheated of their earnings in various forms of deceitful behavior. At least that is the impression one gets from materials published both formally and in comments on various social media boards.


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## Seaboard92 (Sep 27, 2019)

One of these days Jishnu you should message me. And I can tell you more about IPH. And my personal horror stories.


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## Trogdor (Sep 28, 2019)

A former coworker of mine liked to say that Ed Ellis is the guy that once stiffed Thomas the Tank Engine. I don’t remember the details of the story, but it had to do with not paying bills or promised revenues for some kind of Thomas event.

In any event, whether it’s spending a billion dollars of Amtrak’s money to buy freight cars that did more harm than good, or signing a deal with Indiana and Amtrak that left him holding the bag, he’s basically just a railfan who managed to find himself in possession of a lot of money, but little to no business sense on what to do with it.


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