C&TS parlor cars

Richard Tower of the C&TMC said:

>We have shown good growth in the Cinder Bear trains (up 16.4% compared to last year) and parlor car (up 17.4%). Parlor car is particularly impressive taking into account the fare increase this year. Group tour travel is also strong, running about 10% ahead of last year.<


These comments and other events prompted me to look at the parlor car service offered by the C&TS. The C&TS roster lists cars 510 “Clarence Quinlan” and 511 “Joe Vigil” as coaches however the individual car history on the Friends website details their conversion in 2000/2001 to parlor car service. I believe these two cars are used daily in each direction.

Non historic caboose # 0306 is also listed as a parlor car and is painted in the current “red” passenger car color but then lettered flying “Rio Grande” and since 2006 named and lettered the “Lewis Entz”. I have no clue why this mix of lettering and colors though...

The last revenue parlor car listed on the roster is the #05635 which was converted from a stock car in 1996 and has been undergoing restoration by the Friends since 2004. I am curious as to why the Friends are doing the restoration of a revenue car as it was my understanding that revenue car maintenance/restoration is done by the operator/Antonito shops. Are the Friends being compensated by the Commission for the labor and materials in restoring this car? Given the long time period that this restoration has required what has been the financial impact on the RR not having this parlor car in service for this time period? Just a quick estimate shows that if the car had been in service for just ½ of the operating days each season that almost $100K per year in revenue opportunities has been missed. I base this in part on the success that has been seen on the D&S with added parlor and first class service over the last years and Tower’s own data.

Which brings me to the main point of this ramble; I see that the Commission has funding requests for $100K for passenger car(s). So when are we going to see a plan to get some historic passenger cars back in service so that equipment like the #315 and #463 can pull something in Pullman Green ?

Rod

Curt Bianchi photo # 0252



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2007 07:12PM by rod.