Does anyone know what the inside of a contemporary Amtrak Bagge Car looks like? I know they're mostly older streamliner-era baggage cars, but what's inside them? Are there racks/bins for the luggage, or is it basically a streamline boxcar with nothing inside when empty?
Also, who uses Amtrak baggage cars? I've ridden on a few Amtrak LD trains and never once had to check in my luggage - it always went straight to the racks at the bottom or ends of the cars. Are they mostly empty vehicles save for a few oversize items like skis or bicycles?
As a matter of pure luck, I was riding the Los Angeles-New York sleeper on the Sunset Ltd in 1984. This was a single-level car, while the rest of the train was hi levels or Superliners, so it was right behind the baggage car. I got this shot through the open door between the sleeper and the baggage:
There's dedicated baggage space in the Superliner cars anyway, so even your checked baggage rides with you in your assigned car.
Then there are the converted F40PH "Cabbage" cars. I have a picture of one I took on the way from Milwaukee to Chicago somewhere. For push-pull trains, they just needed the controls in the cab of the F40PH, so they removed the diesel and generator and all the other equipment, and put a roll-up door on the side. I don;t think they actually load much baggage in them any more, the one I saw on the platform had the door locked up with a switch lock.
Actually, I caught two of them. 90200 was leading this train, and has a double sliding door:
And 90413 was trailing its train, and has the roll-up door:
(or maybe the other way around, one was heading to Chicago (left of the pic) and the other was heading to Milwaukee (right of pic). This is at the Milwaukee Airport station.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker There's dedicated baggage space in the Superliner cars anyway, so even your checked baggage rides with you in your assigned car.
Not true. Checked rides in the baggage car, even if you are in a coach-baggage Superliner.
I check my bags DC to Pittsburgh every time so I don't have to nanny them around Union Station. Its frustrating when you walk past the cart in Pittsburgh and see your helpless bag sitting there, yet you won't see it again for 15-20 minutes at the counter.
Interesting. I was going the other way, changed from the Cap Limited to the Pennsylvanian at Pittsburg. I only had one large bag, plu smy laptop, and I had a roomette to myself so I just kept my bag with me, but others on my car had theirs stowed downstairs. I actually checked it during the 3 hour wait so i could use the bathroom without dragging the bag in with me. That's the really sad thing, once busy Pittsburg now is relegated to a dingy thing that looks more like a bus stop than a train station. And less than ideal train times - getting off a 5am is not anything like ideal. Vending machine ate my money, too. Luckily I had a business class seat to Harrisburg so free soft drinks - i just wanted my orange juice, dangit!. Maybe next time I'll sleep on the overnight portion instead of staying awake trying to see where we were.
The only Superliner experience I have is with the Capitol Limited, so it could be different somewhere else. My impression, at least with that route, is that they don't want to burn time at the station stops running the baggage cart out to the coach-baggage all the way down at the far end of the platform. Although they do hae to do that for the eastbound.
It also gets a bit annoying when the lower level rack is getting packed in your coach and there's a big empty room full of nothing in there.
I never check Pittsburgh to DC though and it seems like most of the Pittsburgh boarding eastbound passengers don't do that for some reason.
That's what I was on, the Cap Limited from Chicago to Pittsburgh. No idea about the coaches, since I was in a roomette. Next time I will ride one more stop in on the Pennsylvanian, it's much closer for me to go to Lancaster then is it to go to Harrisburg.
All along the trip across PA, I saw railfans out taking pictures. I wondered why - when I got off at Harrisbug I finally saw why - the loco was one of the Amtrak Heritage units. And next time I will sleep overnight, I was so tired I nearly missed the view going around Horseshoe Curve (I did make sure to sit on the proper side of the car). I've seen it both ways now, trackside watching trains go by, and now from a train going around.