Passenger Trains > Marlboro Express

Whatever happened to the promotional train that Marlboro (Phillip Morris) was promoting back in the late 90's? Did that ever turn a wheel? I remember seeing bill boards everywhere promoting the special and if you smoked 1000 packs of cigarettes and saved the UPC's, you could earn a chance to ride on it for a killer vacation that included a ski package, kayaking, mountain climbing, mountain biking, etc. All the things a smoker would have a hard time doing out in the fresh air.

Never turned a wheel

What about the equipment?

cars got cut up and never ran the two F59Phi's are at Metro Link I believe.

5-String Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What about the equipment?

Let's see ... P-M bought two EMD F59PHI's to power the train. When the project was scrapped, they wound up as Metrolink 882 and 883.

One 1997 newsletter column I found said the project was plagued with redesigns and cost overruns ($50mUSD ~ $90mUSD). P-M contracted with Rader Railcar in CO to build the cars.

http://www.alaskarails.org/fp/passenger/fft/history/history.html adds:
Rader Railcar closed and auctioned off its Denver plant in November, 1997 due in part to First American Railways [operator of the Florida Fun Train] defaulting on its car payments. It later regrouped as Colorado Railcar Manufacturing LLC and relocated to Fort Lupton, Colorado.

Is it me, or did Rader have two big projects go Tango Uniform in the same year? Not surprising the company folded.

The equipment was re-used in the Steven Segal sleeper (pun-intended) Under Siege II: Dark Territory. This movie has been discussed here previously (where shots were filmed, histories of the locomotives, etc). I saw photos of this equipment on the net, too. I search of the various equipment broker websites might yield a picture or two (though, sadly, none of Katherine Heigl :-).

Last March, at the New England Railroad Club "New England Rail Forum & Expo", I asked the rep from Colorado Railcar about the hot tub car planned for the Express. I saw a photo on the net of it, half built, on the lot at the shop. He said they still had it.

* JB *

Parts live on... two retention tanks from that train are under the Pacific Sands. Other parts have found their way into private car service.

Here is some material on the hot tub car:

http://trainweb.org/ultradomes/crm/oldspa.html

News material:

http://www.westword.com/Issues/1995-12-13/news/citylimits.html

FullService Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Whatever happened to the promotional train that
> Marlboro (Phillip Morris) was promoting back in
> the late 90's? Did that ever turn a wheel? I
> remember seeing bill boards everywhere promoting
> the special and if you smoked 1000 packs of
> cigarettes and saved the UPC's, you could earn a
> chance to ride on it for a killer vacation that
> included a ski package, kayaking, mountain
> climbing, mountain biking, etc. All the things a
> smoker would have a hard time doing out in the
> fresh air.

Smoke 1000 packs of cigarettes and you're well on your way to a permanent KILLER "vacation"...

(I hated it when my old company was acquired by P-M in the late 80's)

The water in the hot tub put out the Marlboro and they landed on their 'ash',,

Marlboro Unlimited bi-level cars were cut up at Rader Railcar shop at Denver, CO, during the summer of 1997. The KRXX 1241 met its demise on August 6, 1997.

---

I toured this train when it was almost completed. The hot tub was installed, and in fact, I thought that there were two hot tubs in the same car.

These cars were so close to being finished that I can not see why they were scrapped rather than alter them to something like they are just delivering now.

I think that the under-frames were salvaged and reused. The under-frames were from SP gallery cars to start with, and they had some cars on the property when I was there.

An item in Trains Magazine at the time of scrapping mentioned that all of the contest winners were quietly paid off, and, as I remember, they each got $7,000.00.

I saved some promotional material for this train.

If they ran those hot tub cars on CSX trackage, you'd have to rename them "wave pool" cars!

The cars were an engineering nightmare. Marlboro insisted on hot tubs (IN A MOVING RAIL CAR???) and all sorts of other frills, including ventilation systems to remove smoke so the damn things wouldn't stink like an ashtray. The end result was the cars exceeded plate dimensions - Amtrak took one look at 'em and declared them illegal for movement. (FYI: all movements of passenger trains NOT OWNED OUTRIGHT BY ANY RR come under the legal provisions of Amtrak.) That was the final stake through the heart for this ungodly mess. I have no idea how much this cost but it had to be million$$$.

In a perfect world the Marlboro Morons who came up with this scheme would be in soup lines today BUT in all probability they're now VPs or some other sweet reward.

The Marlboro train has to go down as one of the dumbest and most expensive marketing campaigns in U.S. history. However, I did get a cool Malboro Unlimited tee-shirt via a chain smoking compadre. Bob

I have been a member at trainorders for a while and never posted anything as it seems an intimidating to a web novice, however, I couldn't help but notice this thread about the Marlboro Train, while just today receiving an e-mail from an up-coming documentary film maker I have mentored in the past. He has created a 6 minute video that you can view on the web in Quicktime about the premise, design and fate of the Marlboro Train, including the original promotional film, obtained through lawsuits that opened up the secret files of the tobacco companies. The link to the video is

http://web.mac.com/mgotanez/iWeb/Site%202/Movie.html

I hope this is of interest to those who wondered about this. Coincidence that I happened to receive his e-mail earlier today.

slotrain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have been a member at trainorders for a while
> and never posted anything as it seems an
> intimidating to a web novice, however, I couldn't
> help but notice this thread about the Marlboro
> Train, while just today receiving an e-mail from
> an up-coming documentary film maker I have
> mentored in the past. He has created a 6 minute
> video that you can view on the web in Quicktime
> about the premise, design and fate of the Marlboro
> Train, including the original promotional film,
> obtained through lawsuits that opened up the
> secret files of the tobacco companies. The link
> to the video is
>
> http://web.mac.com/mgotanez/iWeb/Site%202/Movie.ht
> ml
>
> I hope this is of interest to those who wondered
> about this. Coincidence that I happened to
> receive his e-mail earlier today.

I have a copy of the original Marlboro Train promotion video. I got it from the store I buy my cigarettes. That prize never really caught my fancy. However, I might search for it and look at it again.

BaltoJoey

PS: I just watched the video, but only the first part pertaining to the Marlboro Train. How can she say it was a secret, when it was a nationwide promotion. That is a stupid comment to make! The rest of the video is just more Leftist tree-hugging pap.

BaltoJoey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PS: I just watched the video, but only the first
> part pertaining to the Marlboro Train. How can she
> say it was a secret, when it was a nationwide
> promotion. That is a stupid comment to make! The
> rest of the video is just more Leftist
> tree-hugging pap.


What a load of crap that video was! Bullet-proof windows in case of anti-tobacco protesters? They really think they are that important, don't they! A body bag in case a rider dies? Just another sensational load of BS to try to support their positions. The main character, Ann Landman touts herself as a "Tobacco Document Researcher". She even said that Rader Rail Car employees were required to sign a document that they would never speak of the Marlboro train. How stupid do they think their target audience really is? The last statement from her is the best..."We only found out about the Marlboro Train because of secret documents we uncovered" Geez, I guess all those ads and promotional banners were intended to keep it a secret. I guess they must believe that none of us can read, understand TV ads or comprehend pictures, so the big secret is safe. I'm an ex-smoker and would never go back to the habit, but activists like those morons still make me laugh! Don't miss the graphics at the end where they finally tell you they are against corporate globalization. They wait til the end to show you their true agenda. Same morons that show up at every IMF/WTO meeting and break windows and injure people in the name of global peace. Too funny.

prr4828 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 5-String Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What about the equipment?
>
> The equipment was re-used in the Steven Segal
> sleeper (pun-intended) Under Siege II: Dark
> Territory. This movie has been discussed here
> previously (where shots were filmed, histories of
> the locomotives, etc). I saw photos of this
> equipment on the net, too. I search of the various
> equipment broker websites might yield a picture or
> two (though, sadly, none of Katherine Heigl :-).
>
> * JB *


Actually we shot Under Siege II before the Marlboro Train was created. In fact the Marlboro people stopped by the iron works facility we used as a shop to refit the ex-SP Gallery cars for the movie to see what they looked like and what we were doing.

The Under Siege II cars were used to create the Marlboro Train.

The other thing that killed the train was the weight of the cars. The redesigns caused them to exceed center plate loads for the trucks. New trucks were built, but by the time they were delivered the weight had increased again and that spelled the end of the train.