American Rail Skitches Amtrak to the Inaugural

By Karl Klockars in Miscellaneous on Jan 5, 2009 7:30PM

Got your Inaugural Road Trip plans finalized yet? While some of us are preparing to pile into the ol' Honda, hauling ass down to DC, and crashing on a park bench somewhere, a much more old-world trek in the lap of luxury could be yours for the low, low price of $2,599 per person. American Rail Excursions, based in Sauk Village, will be hitching their vintage railcars to an outbound Amtrak train and hauling you to our nation's capital with breakfast, dinner and drinks included, as well as private double-occupancy bedrooms, private bathrooms, and lodging for the full span of the six-day trip. It sounds like a good deal if you don't mind sleeping in the equivalent of bunkbeds, sitting on a railroad siding in DC's Union Station.

The train will be attached to Amtrak's "Capitol Limited" route leaving on the 17th, which takes you straight through Indiana, Ohio, the mountains of Pennsylvania, and into DC. Presumably this trip has very little in common with Amtrak aside from the route, but if it does, that's a lot of spending money to get stuck travelling next to a kid that smells like pee. Oh, and to also get stuck on a siding waiting for a 3-mile freight train traveling about 5 pmh to clear off the tracks ahead.

Don't have a few grand to blow on a train trip? If you're really hankering to spend time in a vintage rail car without leaving home, a meal at the Silver Palm or Tutto Italiano is probably in your immediate future.

"All Aboard" from American Rail's website. If they could spare some cash from the $2600 tag to spend on a better-than-Tripod website, it'd be well worth it.