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    "parsed_content": "Skip to contentSkip to site indexSearch & Section NavigationSection NavigationAccountAccountGoHome U.S.SECTIONSU.S.PoliticsNew YorkCaliforniaEducationHealthObituariesScienceClimateWeatherSportsBusinessTechThe UpshotThe MagazineTOP STORIESDonald TrumpSupreme CourtCongressImmigrationAbortionLatest PollsNEWSLETTERSThe MorningMake sense of the day\u2019s news and ideas.The EveningCatch up on big news, and wind down to end your day.See all newslettersPODCASTSThe DailyThe biggest stories of our time, in 20 minutes a day.See all podcastsWorldSECTIONSWorldAfricaAmericasAsiaAustraliaCanadaEuropeMiddle EastScienceClimateWeatherHealthObituariesTOP STORIESMiddle East CrisisRussia-Ukraine WarChina International RelationsThe Global ProfileLeer en Espa\u00f1olNEWSLETTERSThe WorldA guide to understanding the news, made for readers around the globe.Your Places: Global UpdateThe latest news for any part of the world you select.Canada LetterBackstories and analysis from our Canadian correspondents.See all newslettersBusinessSECTIONSBusinessTechEconomyMediaFinance and MarketsDealBookPersonal TechEnergy TransitionYour MoneyTOP STORIESU.S. EconomyStock MarketArtificial IntelligenceNEWSLETTERSDealBookThe most crucial business and policy news you need to know.On TechOur best tech reporting from the week.See all newslettersPODCASTSHard ForkOur tech journalists help you make sense of the rapidly changing tech world.See all podcastsArtsSECTIONSToday's ArtsBook ReviewBest SellersDanceMoviesMusicTelevisionTheaterPop CultureT MagazineVisual ArtsRECOMMENDATIONS100 Best Movies of the 21st CenturyCritic\u2019s PicksWhat to ReadWhat to WatchWhat to Listen To5 Minutes to Make You Love MusicNEWSLETTERSBooksReviews, news and features to help you find your next read.WatchingStreaming TV and movie recommendations.See all newslettersPODCASTSBook ReviewThe podcast that takes you inside the literary world.PopcastPop music news, new songs and albums, and artists of note.See all podcastsLifestyleSECTIONSAll LifestyleWellTravelStyleReal EstateFoodLoveYour MoneyPersonal TechT MagazineCOLUMNS36 HoursAsk WellThe HuntModern LoveWhere to EatVowsSocial Q\u2019sThe EthicistAsk the TherapistNEWSLETTERSThe WeekenderUnwind with stories about culture and the way we live.WellEssential news and guidance to live your healthiest life.See all newslettersPODCASTSModern LoveThe complicated love lives of real people.See all podcastsOpinionSECTIONSOpinionGuest EssaysEditorialsOp-DocsVideosLettersTOPICSPoliticsWorldBusinessTechClimateHealthCultureCOLUMNISTSJamelle BouieMaureen DowdDavid FrenchThomas L. 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Win ProjectionsNEWSLETTERSThe PulseDelivering the top stories in sports, Sunday to Friday.See all newslettersPLAYConnections: Sports Edition Connections: Soccer Edition Connections Coach U.S.InternationalCanadaEspa\u00f1ol\u4e2d\u6587In the Private Jet Age, the Quiet Allure of Private RailPrivate train cars may seem like a relic of the past, but for some rail fans, nothing beats having \u2014 or renting \u2014 your own sleeper car.Credit...Supported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTShare full articleBy Benton GrahamVisuals by Jamie Kelter DavisReporting from onboard the Warren R. Henry from Chicago to St. LouisSept. 23, 2026Sign up for the Travel Dispatch newsletter. Essential news on the changing travel landscape, expert tips and inspiration for your future trips. Get it sent to your inbox.Before politicians, celebrities and business titans traveled the world by private jet, they traveled by private train. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a private car specially outfitted during World War II. The actor Cary Grant is said to have courted the Woolworth heir Barbara Hutton aboard a private car. The Catholic Church even had one for a U.S.-based cardinal.But, as the 20th century advanced, passenger rail gave way to car and plane travel. Postwar America began to travel differently, and so too did the rich and famous, who eschewed train cars for private planes. Private rail travel disappeared.ImageAmtrak\u2019s Missouri River Runner train departs from St. Louis with three private cars attached at the rear. The cars are often referred to as \u201cprivate varnish.\u201dWell, almost. Amtrak, the national railway company, and a dedicated but dwindling set of enthusiastic owners, have kept private train travel alive by way of something called the Privately-Owned Rail Car Program, which charges owners of private rail cars a fee per mile to hitch them to existing Amtrak trains.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPrivate rail cars traveled 429,000 miles on Amtrak in fiscal year 2025, according to the American Association of Private Rail Car Owners, accounting for $2.5 million of Amtrak\u2019s $3.9 billion in revenue last year \u2014 hardly a significant line in the budget.But owners see themselves as something more than the numbers convey: stewards of a forgotten history.All AboardOn an early May morning, I joined a line of passengers in Chicago\u2019s Union Station waiting to board the Lincoln Service Missouri River Runner bound for St. Louis. But I was not getting on an Amtrak car. I was joining a private car owner named Patrick Henry on what\u2019s called a \u201crepositioning run\u201d for three of his cars \u2014 he was moving them, without passengers, to Kansas City for their annual inspection. (I bought a standard Amtrak ticket for my portion of the trip for $41.)ImageThe Warren R. Henry dome car is one of three owned by Patrick Henry and is named for his father.Patrick Henry, 74, uses his cars for his own travel and also rents them out to private rail fans. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSpotting me in line, Mr. Henry, 74, waved me under a barricade and then guided me through Union Station\u2019s dark bowels to his crisply painted blue-and-white cars. U.S. and Texas flags hung on the rear car\u2019s back platform. Amtrak had already hooked the cars onto the back of the train. As I climbed the stairs, Mr. Henry\u2019s onboard manager, Olivia Estrada, greeted me and took my drink order.Mr. Henry named his first two cars, purchased as a pair in 2004 for $900,000, after his parents: Warren R. and Evelyn Henry. He recently added a 1954 Pullman named Santa Fe \u2014 the railroad for which his father worked for 41 years. He declined to share what he paid, but a car immediately ready for Amtrak typically costs around $1 million. Maintenance costs Mr. Henry $60,000 annually on the domed Warren R. Henry car, and $40,000 for each of his two other cars, which are sleepers.ImagePassengers boarding the Amtrak train in Chicago walk past Mr. Henry\u2019s cars, which have been attached to the rear of the train. Mr. Henry showed me to the second floor of the Warren R. Henry, at the rear of the train. A dome car, its big windows offered a view of the passengers making their way toward Amtrak\u2019s cars in front of us. I felt uneasy looking down on them. I also had no envy for the seat scramble they would soon face, as I chose between six creamsicle-colored swivel chairs. Some passengers stared or paused to take a photograph, possibly wondering what I was doing up there.Mr. Henry, who runs a beverage marketing company, uses his cars for personal travel and charters them out at $16,000 per day for the dome car and one sleeper car \u2014 a rate that includes meals, drinks and Amtrak fees.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAs we pulled out of the station, the Willis Tower and Chicago River came into sight. The elevated perch gave sweeping views of Illinois\u2019s industrial towns and farmlands. Windows encased the side and back, with cushioned leather seating throughout.ImageInside the domed Warren R. Henry, which offers panoramic views of the countryside. Below the upstairs lounge was another lounge with a TV and a dining room with a long table and a stained glass panel on the ceiling. Mr. Henry has equipped the cars with Starlink satellite internet.Though I wasn\u2019t sleeping on the train, I had been given a bedroom on the Evelyn Henry with its own sink but a shared bathroom. The car\u2019s primary suite has its own bathroom. All the Santa Fe\u2019s bedrooms have their own bathroom and shower. The two sleeper cars house a combined 12 bedrooms.\u2018The best-kept secret in transportation\u2019Leonard Cherry has chartered Mr. Henry\u2019s trains three times and finds rail travel soothing. \u201cIt\u2019s like being rocked to sleep at night,\u201d he said.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMr. Cherry, a 71-year-old Houstonian who sold his material supply and demolition company in 2020, said a weeklong trip typically costs $10,000 per person.Mr. Cherry and his wife, Regina, got hooked on train travel after a 2009 Amtrak trip from Chicago to San Francisco. They loved the spectacular scenery but found the accommodations cramped. Mr. Cherry researched high-end train experiences and found Mr. Henry.\u201cIt\u2019s probably the best-kept secret in transportation,\u201d he said.Mr. Cherry compared the experience to yachting, where the journey can be more important than the destination.ImageThe sitting room in the Warren R. Henry. ImageThe dining room of the Warren R. Henry. \u201cWhat we prefer is to sit in the dome car and play cards or games and have interesting conversation and dine well and listen to good music as we enjoy the scenery,\u201d he said.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTGuests can book trains directly through Mr. Henry or through a company called Halloway, which aims to be private rail travel\u2019s Airbnb. Mike Avena launched the company in 2025, planning to start a North American night train service. Looking for cars to bring his vision to fruition, he connected with car owners and saw an opportunity to grow the industry.Mr. Avena said the owners operate a \u201cpaper-based business\u201d and have \u201cstruggled to connect with a newer generation of travelers.\u201d Halloway now offers a handful of private railroad cars that can be chartered, and also operates the Napa Valley Wine Train and the Head of the Lakes train along Lake Superior.ImageOne of the bedrooms on the Evelyn Henry. Most of them have shared baths. Bill Gray, the president of the American Association of Private Rail Car Owners, owns a rail car called the Blue Ridge Club, which he charters through Halloway. Chartering the car without Amtrak fees, food or crew costs $2,750 per day. He said he spends $50,000 per year on maintenance, though he declined to say how much he paid for the car. It sleeps six people, fits 20 in its dining room, and eight in its lounge.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTTerry Tomsick, an attorney and medical ethicist from Colorado, rode the Blue Ridge Club last October, on an eight-day fall foliage group trip through New York and Vermont for which she paid $5,500.\u201cYou get to see a part of the world that is available only by rail,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re going through wonderful vistas, and you\u2019re stopping in the little towns where you\u2019re usually parked overnight, so you get to go into the little towns for the evening or afternoon.\u201dTrying to keep history aliveAmtrak\u2019s focus on speed and on-time performance can put it at odds with private rail cars. The Blue Ridge Club, which Mr. Gray parks in New Jersey, can\u2019t exceed 110 m.p.h., because, like most private cars, it does not have the dual-brake technology required for higher speed testing. Amtrak consistently goes faster than that in the Northeast.Amtrak began raising its rates for private rail cars in 2019 following an Inspector General\u2019s report that found the rail agency\u2019s program had \u201cinsufficient controls for cost and revenue management.\u201d As of Oct. 1, owners who attach certified cars to Amtrak trains will be charged $4.91 per mile, with each additional car costing $3.78 per mile, up from $2.90 per mile for the first car $2.22 additional cars in 2017. (The cost for a first car peaked in 2023 at $5.01 per mile.)The doors of the cars bear their names; guests get a handout listing some of the famous people who have traveled on them. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAs Amtrak costs rise, the number of Amtrak-certified cars within the American Association of Private Rail Car Owners has dropped to about 38, from 125 a decade ago, according to Mr. Gray.Borden McGahee and her husband, Nelson, of Columbus, Ga., purchased the Dearing private car for $140,000 in 2006. She said they stopped taking it cross-country in 2019 because of Amtrak logistics and costs. Their parking rate in Savannah reached $2,000 per month. The car is now on a tourist train in Georgia.\u201cI hate that we can\u2019t do it anymore,\u201d Ms. McGahee, who declined to give her age, said of traveling on Amtrak\u2019s network. \u201cWe had this car to keep history alive.\u201dMarc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman, said attaching the cars can take up to an hour and requires turning off the HVAC, toilets, regular lighting, food service and power outlets on the rest of the train for most of that time. On June 1, Amtrak cut six cities where private rail cars can hook on. It also added two new cities in California.Farmland and tiramis\u00f9Aboard the Warren R. Henry, we zipped through Illinois towns, approaching 110 m.p.h. Railfans gawked, snapping photos as we went by. Students congregated in the Joliet, Ill., baseball stadium near the Amtrak station. I thought they were there for us. It turned out they were just watching a baseball game. We passed through industrial towns with roadways and railways feeding into intermodals like spider webs, and vast green and yellow expanses of farmland.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTLunch is served in the dome car, with dishes based on old recipes used on the railroads. ImageOn this day, the main dish was Rio Grande braised short ribs. As lunchtime approached, Ms. Estrada draped white tablecloths over the two booths in the dome car, set the table and placed menus: braised short ribs, Carrabbas whipped potatoes, grilled asparagus, and tiramis\u00f9, using recipes based on former railroad menus.Ms. Estrada started working as a cleaner for Mr. Henry. When she took the job, the only other train she\u2019d been on was New York\u2019s subway. \u201cI just got spoiled immediately,\u201d she said.As we snaked over the Mississippi River, St. Louis\u2019s Gateway Arch came into view, signaling the end of my journey.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe cars could keep going without me. After their inspection in Kansas City, Mr. Henry had other plans for them.At St. Louis\u2019s Gateway Station I disembarked and, standing on the platform, watched as the train made its way west.Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2026.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
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