jeaton
Philcal
...and from all accounts did quite well.
Wrong!
I'll second that "Wrong!".
I was working for Thrall Car Manufacturing when we built some of these cars for Amtrak. We were the low bidder and we were charging around $370,000 for each boxcar.
No one could pay $370,000 for a boxcar and expect to make money with the thing. The ownership costs will eat you alive at $370,000/car. These things required electrical systems. No other boxcar has an electrical system. We had to subcontract the electrical work because nobody in house could do electrical work - freight railcars don't have electrical systems. Special braking systems were required. Thrall put 'em in and charged for doing so. It went on and on up to $370,000/car.
I won't name the guy who sold this stupid idea to Amtrak, but I know who he is. If I ever get my business going I want to hire him as a salesman. If he could sell the idea that Amtrak could make money hauling freight in $370,000 boxcars, he can sell anything.
