Passenger Trains > Baggage Car locations on 19,20,91,92,97 and 98

Can anyone explain why the baggage cars are located on the rear of the eastern long distance trains listed.

I was just on train 98 and thought that was odd to have the baggage car at the rear of the train. On the train you could walk right up to the first cars vestibule and see the locomotive through the little window.....

That is because when they get to New York, NY they do not have two turn the train.

Every train is sent to Sunnyside via a loop track in Queens, and so they are all turned back. Only a Keystone may relay within the station or on a stub track between East River tunnel Lines 1 & 2 around 7th Avenue.

I remember reading this on here before. I believe it's because the East Coast long-distance trains have a rotation cycle which includes the Lake Shore Limited. The Lake Shore's New York section operates in reverse order of the other Eastern trains in order to expedite its switching at Albany with the Boston section. Amtrak used to switch the consists at New York but doesn't anymore, and that's why the baggage is on the rear, as well as the coaches being directly behind the engines and the sleepers ahead of the baggage.

knotch8 Wrote:
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> I remember reading this on here before. I believe
> it's because the East Coast long-distance trains
> have a rotation cycle which includes the Lake
> Shore Limited. The Lake Shore's New York section
> operates in reverse order of the other Eastern
> trains in order to expedite its switching at
> Albany with the Boston section. Amtrak used to
> switch the consists at New York but doesn't
> anymore, and that's why the baggage is on the
> rear, as well as the coaches being directly behind
> the engines and the sleepers ahead of the baggage.


To expand on this, with the baggage cars on the rear and all vestibules facing west, all consists are uniform and interchangeable. Previously, if you wanted to (for example) swap a coach from 48's inbound to 51's outbound, you would have to loop the car. If you wanted to turn pd48 to nd91, you had to flat shift the consist.

Now, all of those moves are unnecessary.

in my world, bag cars on headend and sleepers on the rear
no exceptions !

Another reason: if a train goes via Philadelphia, then west, it gets turned at the Philadelphia station. The PRR avoided this by using the North Philly station for Chicago trains, but Amtrak uses the main Philadelphia station for all its trains.

Whatever the reason, I think it is stupid to have the baggage on the rear because in **some** locations the train has to stop /spot once for passengers, then pull up & stop /spot again for baggage car work. This just delays the trains unnecessarily in my opinion.

From what I've heard Amtrak has been having a lot of problems of late with the old heritage baggage cars involving HEP cable failures. Putting the car at the rear allows the car to be isolated from the rest of the train should a HEP cable fault occur in the car.

The_Chief_Way Wrote:
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> in my world, bag cars on headend and sleepers on
> the rear
> no exceptions !


Amen! After 100 years with sleepers on the rear it baffles me that someone decided the baggage needs to be on rear because of 'rough' ride. Somehow they manage to make it work on CZ.

Posted from iPhone

actually, nobody got i The baggage cars are on the bottom for one main reason, and that's the keep the last sleeper from bouncing around so much and dust improving the ride quality. When we first started reversing the concepts but kept the baggage up front, mini sleeper passengers were complaining about riding in the last car due to the inherent wigwag that goes on with any last car of a train

Posted from Android

KV1guy Wrote:
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> actually, nobody got i The baggage cars are on the
> bottom for one main reason, and that's the keep
> the last sleeper from bouncing around so much and
> dust improving the ride quality. When we first
> started reversing the concepts but kept the
> baggage up front, mini sleeper passengers were
> complaining about riding in the last car due to
> the inherent wigwag that goes on with any last car
> of a train
>
> Posted from Android

C'mon, stop using facts - only speculations are allowed.

Whatever the real reason, it seems a waste of time to start / stop / spot twice at some stations.

I've spent many a restful night in the Park Car at the back of the Canadian with no rough ride issues. I'd much rather be back there with no annoying horn noise all night or God forbid we hit something. As for the bad HEP cable connections, how is it that VIA seems to run the same vintage baggage cars at the front of their trains with no issues? Oh wait. I forgot. They actually maintain their equipment.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> I've spent many a restful night in the Park Car at
> the back of the Canadian with no rough ride
> issues. I'd much rather be back there with no
> annoying horn noise all night or God forbid we hit
> something. As for the bad HEP cable connections,
> how is it that VIA seems to run the same vintage
> baggage cars at the front of their trains with no
> issues? Oh wait. I forgot. They actually maintain
> their equipment.

Since the Canadian never runs faster than 60mph if ever the last car bouncing around is more or less a non issue on that train.

yes, the grass is always greener north of the border, where equipment utilization and farebox recovery is about the lowest in the world so plenty of time to maintain etc. :)

Jishnu, what a crock of manure.