Passenger Trains > Theater car restrictions?

What restrictions exist for the operation of theater cars? Can they be interchanged unoccupied in freight service?

Any info appreciated. Thanks.

Posted from iPhone

evenson65 Wrote:
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> What restrictions exist for the operation of
> theater cars? Can they be interchanged unoccupied
> in freight service?
>
> Any info appreciated. Thanks.
>
> Posted from iPhone

Probably.

But only an idiot would try it.

Under what circumstances would a theater-observation car need to be interchanged in freight service?

Don't they always have roll down doors? If closed up it would be like any passenger car which is to say it's possible but generally not that good an idea.

Posted from iPhone

The theater car that Wheeling and Lake Erie now has was once owned by a member of the Orrville, OH group, and was seen on several different railroads in the past, so I guess that would make some sort of precedent.  It also could have been handled as a special consist movement, and not interchanged in the traditional sense.

Amtrak and CSX both have recently built theater cars, the CSX one carries an 800XXX number and as I understand it was designed to be fully Amtrak certified.  I have seen theater cars from most other class 1's moving in Amtrak service, mostly on home rails, or in special trains - I'm sure the movement and sharing of those cars is worked out at a very high level. 

The recent CSX car likely required some creative and unique engineering to include the required crashwortness into the rear of the car around the picture window, without loosing too much view.  My comments are not a slight, but complemetary to the designers and builders of the car, as it was a tall order.

As others said here, most if not all cars have a removable door or screen that guards the window while the car is in transit or not in use, which is a great idea.  I also suppose if the interior shade is a light enough color, it would make a great projection screen - don't forget a movie and some popcorn!
 

How can theatre cars be used in interchange service?  None of them have the ARR mandated collision end posts that are for required in their construction.

In reality you would not want to project through the glass but a pulldown screen could be fitted in front of the window. It would not surprise me at all if they did in fact do this coupled with a video projector further back or on the ceiling.  Not so much for movies but for business presentations.

Does anyone know of any incidents where the big window was broken?

Theater car is just a name for the cars with the big rear window, they are not actual theaters with projectors for watching films. Just a window to watch the rails roll by.

filmteknik Wrote:
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> In reality you would not want to project through
> the glass but a pulldown screen could be fitted in
> front of the window. It would not surprise me at
> all if they did in fact do this coupled with a
> video projector further back or on the ceiling. 
> Not so much for movies but for business
> presentations.
>
> Does anyone know of any incidents where the big
> window was broken?

Posted from Android

Yes, I know this.  I was responding to Carondelet who made the joking suggestion about projecting on the inner surface of the protective cover.  I do think that if you have shippers or management officials gathered in one of these things, you could in fact to a business presentation on a screen rolled down inside the window.  Cost to add the feature would be trivial.

Most theater cars are set up to do presentations in the back.  Amtrak's has two flat screens mounted above the window just for the purpose of making presentations while looking at the infrastructure.

Yeah, I figured it was too good an opportunity to pass up.