On Tuesday, July 8, 2014 11:45:35 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Has anybody had any experience with rail shipping a glider in trailer? I'm looking at pre-owned gliders and after flying out to inspect the glider and purchasing, having to fly back to the west coast, load up the pickup and drive to New York sure would take the joy out of a glider purchase. I'm just tossing this out, nothing on the radar yet

I checked into that myself a number of years ago to get a trailer shipped from PA to CA. it would have been very expensive and besides the jarring of the virtually un-sprung rail-car, something else must be considered: Humping! No, not what you think - get your mind out of the gutter! Trains are being built by pushing the rail cars over a hump and then directing them onto the various tracks by using gravity. The rail cars then hit each other at a relatively slow speed but still, the impact(s) is considerable. The glider inside the trailer may arrive not the way it was put in there.
Shipping a trailer with your towing vehicle inside a 53' closed trailer may be an option but the trailer should be an air-ride type. Looked into that as well and was quoted over 1$/mile and that was before the large hike in Diesel fuel prices.
Bottom line seems that driving it on the road is still the lowest cost option.

Uli