Trains.com

Why baggage cars at all?

19414 views
101 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    July 2004
  • 2,741 posts
Posted by Paul Milenkovic on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 4:57 PM

erikem

John WR

oltmannd
Swimming pool,

That's want I want.  A swimming pool car.  It's my right as an American citizen.  I want it now.  

Along with a foolproof plan and an airtight alibi???

The train vibration on the C&O Chessie Train killed the fish in the aquarium.

So you are going to need an airtight alibi.  Either that or an Amtrak crew member with strong arms to run one of those skimmer nets over the top of the swimming people to skim off the deceased passengers who float to the top Crying

If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 5:09 PM

Paul Milenkovic

The train vibration on the C&O Chessie Train killed the fish in the aquarium.

So you are going to need an airtight alibi.  Either that or an Amtrak crew member with strong arms to run one of those skimmer nets over the top of the swimming people to skim off the deceased passengers who float to the top

Nawwwww -- do what the cruise lines do.  Roll stabilizers!  (A good use for all that negative-cant-deficiency technology Amtrak paid for but doesn't use!)

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • 2,741 posts
Posted by Paul Milenkovic on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 11:57 AM

The cruise lines?  You'll be swimming in something else besides chlorinated swimming-pool water.

If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?

  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: Atlanta
  • 11,971 posts
Posted by oltmannd on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 12:19 PM

Overmod
(A good use for all that negative-cant-deficiency technology Amtrak paid for but doesn't use!)

Gotta keep the baggage comfortable, you know....

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 8,156 posts
Posted by henry6 on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 12:40 PM

Ya gotta have a closet someplace, especially when you have hundreds of people with all their stuff....can't hide it all in the luggage racks overhead or under the seats...unless you want to hold it in your lap for me...

RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 9,610 posts
Posted by schlimm on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 6:38 PM

No baggage cars works fine overseas.  And fewer and fewer people check luggage on air flights.  If folks insist on traveling on LD trains as though they were carrying a trunk 80 years ago, maybe Amtrak could accommodate them at 25 bucks per bag?

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • 3,727 posts
Posted by John WR on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 7:41 PM

schlimm
 If folks insist on traveling on LD trains as though they were carrying a trunk 80 years ago, maybe Amtrak could accommodate them at 25 bucks per bag?

Actually, Schlimm, Amtrak does do this.  No piece of luggage can be more than 50 pounds and 75 linear inches.  You can carry on two pieces of luggage and check 2 more at no charge.  You can check 2 more for $20 each.  That's it.  

John

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 9,610 posts
Posted by schlimm on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 8:19 PM

Much too cheap to cover the extra car and personnel.  No free checked bags, $25 each.

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

  • Member since
    December 2005
  • From: Cardiff, CA
  • 2,930 posts
Posted by erikem on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 10:11 PM

Paul Milenkovic

The train vibration on the C&O Chessie Train killed the fish in the aquarium.

So you are going to need an airtight alibi.  Either that or an Amtrak crew member with strong arms to run one of those skimmer nets over the top of the swimming people to skim off the deceased passengers who float to the top Crying

The vibrations transmitted through the water couldn't be any worse than what people endure body-surfing - I had one aunt who was body surfing daily in her 70's. Though I suspect that motion sickness would result in some unpleasant additives to the pool water. Ick!

- Erik

P.S. I'd probably also need a Las Vegas wedding and a Mexican divorce to go with the airtight alibi... or maybe an autographed picture of Randy Mantooth Mischief

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • 3,727 posts
Posted by John WR on Thursday, February 21, 2013 5:35 PM

erikem
P.S. I'd probably also need a Las Vegas wedding and a Mexican divorce to go with the airtight alibi... or maybe an autographed picture of Randy Mantooth

Erik,  

May I suggest you get the Mexican divorce before the Las Vegas wedding.  

John

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • 3,727 posts
Posted by John WR on Thursday, February 21, 2013 5:54 PM

schlimm
uch to cheap to cover the extra car and personnel.  No free checked bags, $25 each.

You're a hard man, Schlimm.  You probably wouldn't let me check my piano either.  

John

  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: Atlanta
  • 11,971 posts
Posted by oltmannd on Thursday, February 21, 2013 6:21 PM

erikem

Paul Milenkovic

The train vibration on the C&O Chessie Train killed the fish in the aquarium.

So you are going to need an airtight alibi.  Either that or an Amtrak crew member with strong arms to run one of those skimmer nets over the top of the swimming people to skim off the deceased passengers who float to the top Crying

The vibrations transmitted through the water couldn't be any worse than what people endure body-surfing - I had one aunt who was body surfing daily in her 70's. Though I suspect that motion sickness would result in some unpleasant additives to the pool water. Ick!

- Erik

P.S. I'd probably also need a Las Vegas wedding and a Mexican divorce to go with the airtight alibi... or maybe an autographed picture of Randy Mantooth Mischief

or a Winnebago, heck a herd of Winnebagos, we're givin' 'em away!

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • 3,727 posts
Posted by John WR on Friday, February 22, 2013 8:56 PM

erikem
The vibrations transmitted through the water couldn't be any worse than what people endure body-surfing

Erik,  

Maybe the vibrations will feel like laying in one of those vibrating beds feels.  

John

  • Member since
    July 2010
  • From: Louisiana
  • 2,310 posts
Posted by Paul of Covington on Saturday, February 23, 2013 2:08 PM

   As long as we're wandering around the subject, I just thought of something and figured I'd better get it out of my head before it died of loneliness:  Back in the '60's, if someone died and the services were to be held some distance away, for the price of a train ticket, the coffin could be shipped to the desired destination.   Do they still do that?    Going back to the original subject, it might be a little awkward shoving a coffin into the space under a coach or in a compartment at the end of the car.

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

  • Member since
    January 2012
  • 46 posts
Posted by BNSFandSP on Sunday, February 24, 2013 1:05 AM

The Aero Train had bus bodies (including the under-floor baggage storage), and I agree, it should be done, but the conversion would probably cost more than Amtrak can afford.  On the other hand, the Viewliner II orders include baggage-dorms to reduce expenses (hopefully).

Blue Alert! We're at Blue Alert! Aw crap, it's a nondescript GEVO... Cancel Blue Alert!

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • 3,727 posts
Posted by John WR on Saturday, March 9, 2013 8:12 PM

Paul,  

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, March 14, 2013 7:09 PM

Paul what, John?

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • 3,727 posts
Posted by John WR on Thursday, March 14, 2013 7:52 PM

Paul,  

Please excuse my earlier post.  I must have been distracted.  

Anyway, the thought occurs to me that when I die I would like my coffin to be put on an Amtrak baggage car and sent around the country forever.  Do you think that can be arranged?

John

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • 3,727 posts
Posted by John WR on Thursday, March 14, 2013 7:53 PM

Thanks for calling my omission to my attention Bob.  Now I've redone the post.  

John

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, March 14, 2013 8:17 PM

John WR
Anyway, the thought occurs to me that when I die I would like my coffin to be put on an Amtrak baggage car and sent around the country forever.  Do you think that can be arranged?

A noble thought.  You might actually be able to manage something like that if you were cremated and somebody slipped the 'cremains' into some location on the baggage car where they would stay undisturbed.

I'd rather have a Viking funeral: when I die, strap me to the next GE with broken turbocharger lube lines and notch her up...

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: Mastic, N.Y.
  • 51 posts
Posted by art11758 on Friday, March 15, 2013 9:42 AM

or how about a McCulloch chainsaw?

I just figured I would keep with the underlying topic at hand.

Where is my real simulated indian jewelry anyways?

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Friday, March 15, 2013 11:21 AM

art11758
or how about a McCulloch chainsaw?

(Cue obligatory Jackyl sound bite)

  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: Atlanta
  • 11,971 posts
Posted by oltmannd on Friday, March 15, 2013 1:32 PM

John WR

Paul,  

Please excuse my earlier post.  I must have been distracted.  

Anyway, the thought occurs to me that when I die I would like my coffin to be put on an Amtrak baggage car and sent around the country forever.  Do you think that can be arranged?

John

Sure.  Gotta put something in those brand new baggage cars....

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: Atlanta
  • 11,971 posts
Posted by oltmannd on Friday, March 15, 2013 1:33 PM

art11758

or how about a McCulloch chainsaw?

I just figured I would keep with the underlying topic at hand.

Where is my real simulated indian jewelry anyways?

Right next to the Gucci shoe tree....

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • 2,741 posts
Posted by Paul Milenkovic on Friday, March 15, 2013 3:10 PM

Overmod

John WR
Anyway, the thought occurs to me that when I die I would like my coffin to be put on an Amtrak baggage car and sent around the country forever.  Do you think that can be arranged?

A noble thought.  You might actually be able to manage something like that if you were cremated and somebody slipped the 'cremains' into some location on the baggage car where they would stay undisturbed.

I'd rather have a Viking funeral: when I die, strap me to the next GE with broken turbocharger lube lines and notch her up...

I nominate this as the best post on this forum, ever.

I can just picture an aging railfan having finally come to their last "fan trip", laid to rest on top of the hood next to the exhaust stack.  Wearing, what?  A suit and tie?  A kind of old-fashioned train-engineer Oshkosh overalls, engineer hat, festooned with pins and other memorabilia?

A bag piper trackside sounding out New Britain (Amazing Grace)?  The burble of the idling FDL in the background?  The order given to notch-er-up, followed by the billowing of black clouds of Diesel smoke out the stack?  Followed by a pause of, dunno, 10 minutes for the unit "to load up."  With curling of the paint of the locomotive in one of the "Heritage color schemes" from the flames building up inside?

And doesn't a proper Viking funeral involve not only setting the Dragon Ship on fire, but setting it out to sea?  So would the locomotive unit be sent along some abandoned branch line in this process?

So much food for the imagination . . .

If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • 3,727 posts
Posted by John WR on Friday, March 15, 2013 5:12 PM

Paul Milenkovic
So would the locomotive unit be sent along some abandoned branch line in this process?

I suggest it be set on fire on Track 14 in the Hoboken Terminal.  They it would be promptly be rolled onto a car float (as trains were in the old days) and pulled out to sea to perish beneath the waves.  

  • Member since
    October 2012
  • 3 posts
Posted by DepotDoc on Friday, March 15, 2013 6:07 PM

I have traveled on all the long distance trains multiple times, and I can assure you that both the coach/baggage Superliners and the baggage cars were very thoroughly utilized on most trips. Some travelers were on either an extended trip or were moving to a new home and needed more luggage than a typical passenger did.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Friday, March 15, 2013 8:11 PM

John WR
I suggest it be set on fire on Track 14 in the Hoboken Terminal.  They it would be promptly be rolled onto a car float (as trains were in the old days) and pulled out to sea to perish beneath the waves.  

No, refloat the Binghamton, roll it on there, and take the whole thing out to sea to sink beneath the waves in glory.

  • Member since
    August 2012
  • 3,727 posts
Posted by John WR on Friday, March 15, 2013 9:04 PM

While the choir sings:  

"This train is bound for glory this train

 This trains is bound for glory this train

 This train is bound for glory

 Don't carry no one but the righteous and holy

 This train is bound for glory this train."

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Friday, March 15, 2013 10:46 PM

And, people who ride the Crescent, particularly sb to Atlanta check quite a bit of baggage. All who say that the baggage cars are not utilized should take the Crescent southbound out of Atlanta. You have to wait until the baggage carts have brought the checked baggage to the station before you may go down to the train--and it is a long wait because the platform is not wide enough for both passengers and checked baggage to use it at the same time.

In Salt Lake City, there is usually a cartful of baggage going on and a cartful coming off the California Zephyr.

Johnny

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy