The cost of private insurance, which railroad preservation organizations must purchase to cover railfan excursions, has soared in recent years. The potential for personal liability claims always exists, but consequential damages can be even more burdensome. After all, those gleaming vintage trains do occasionally break down, temporarily placing the tracks they were running on out of service. The paying customers might merely be annoyed at being stranded for a while, but the host railroad will be a lot more upset, given that they have scheduled, revenue-generating trains to run. Fortunately, in the US there's an alternative insurance provider: Amtrak. But as you might expect there are strings attached...
