Weird railroad rules and regulations on Amtrak?

[g]

Does Amtrak have any really weird rules and/or regulations that just strike you as odd or leave you scratching your head over how they came to be?

I was leafing through a 1938 Santa Fe timetable and came across one that really seems puzzling:

Out of its five transcontinental trains: Super Chief, Chief, Scout/Navajo, California Limited, Fast Mail Express and El Capitan, the El Capitan had a regulation prohibiting corpses from being carried in its baggage car. No such rule for the others.

Does Amtrak have anything seemingly as bizarre today?

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

While not directly involved with Amtrak the Milwaukee Road prohibited the carrying of dogs (didn't mention cats) on Hiawatha trains between Chicago and at least Milwaukee. I saw this in a documentary about early Amtrak service in Wisconsin.

 

[guest]

I believe that the baggage car on the El Capitan was a combined baggage car/coach with seats on top and bags in the lower half. So it was probably superstition for the railroad to have live people on top and stiffs on the bottom?

 

[zephyr17]

The baggage car on the El Capitan was a single level baggage-dorm that had fairing on on end for a visual transition to the following Hi-Level cars, but there was never a second level on the El Cap's bag-dorm. You may be confusing it with a Superliner Coach-Baggage, which is arranged as you describe, but Santa Fe never had a equivalent Hi-Level car to a Superliner Coach-Bag.

 

[guest]

The baggage car on the El Capitan was a single level baggage-dorm that had fairing on on end for a visual transition to the following Hi-Level cars, but there was never a second level on the El Cap's bag-dorm. You may be confusing it with a Superliner Coach-Baggage, which is arranged as you describe, but Santa Fe never had a equivalent Hi-Level car to a Superliner Coach-Bag.

well that leaves me scratching my head again at the op's post. what reason for only that train not allowed to have corpses, by which I assume they mean coffins, in the baggage car?? :unsure:

 

[zephyr17]

The baggage car on the El Capitan was a single level baggage-dorm that had fairing on on end for a visual transition to the following Hi-Level cars, but there was never a second level on the El Cap's bag-dorm. You may be confusing it with a Superliner Coach-Baggage, which is arranged as you describe, but Santa Fe never had a equivalent Hi-Level car to a Superliner Coach-Bag.

well that leaves me scratching my head again at the op's post. what reason for only that train not allowed to have corpses, by which I assume they mean coffins, in the baggage car?? :unsure:

Perhaps the 1938 edition of the El Cap had limited baggage capacity, so they put remains on trains with more space for head-end business.

Also, in re-reading the post, 1938 was 18 years before the Hi-Levels existed.

 

[cirdan]

The baggage car on the El Capitan was a single level baggage-dorm that had fairing on on end for a visual transition to the following Hi-Level cars, but there was never a second level on the El Cap's bag-dorm. You may be confusing it with a Superliner Coach-Baggage, which is arranged as you describe, but Santa Fe never had a equivalent Hi-Level car to a Superliner Coach-Bag.

well that leaves me scratching my head again at the op's post. what reason for only that train not allowed to have corpses, by which I assume they mean coffins, in the baggage car?? :unsure:

I don't know about this particular case, but in the UK I believe it was normal to have one person ride with the corpse and be responsible for it. It might have been an undertaker or a family member. I don't know why exactly. Maybe to assure piety and see that the other assorted junk that gets put in the baggage car is kept away from the coffin.

In the above case, it would seem there was no gangway connecvtion to the rest of the train. Therefore this person wouldn't have been able to go to the bathroom for example, or get something to eat.

 

[ehbowen]

I'm pretty sure that it was a combination of both limited capacity, as Z17 pointed out, and also the fact that El Cap was an express train on a new and very hot schedule. Yes, the Super Chief was on the same schedule, but the Super did not make any intermediate passenger stops between Chicago and Barstow save for Kansas City. Loading and unloading human remains is awkward and time-consuming; hence the decision to shift that business towards the other, slower trains until they could get operating experience with the 39-3/4 hour fast schedule.

 

[zephyr17]

The baggage car on the El Capitan was a single level baggage-dorm that had fairing on on end for a visual transition to the following Hi-Level cars, but there was never a second level on the El Cap's bag-dorm. You may be confusing it with a Superliner Coach-Baggage, which is arranged as you describe, but Santa Fe never had a equivalent Hi-Level car to a Superliner Coach-Bag.

well that leaves me scratching my head again at the op's post. what reason for only that train not allowed to have corpses, by which I assume they mean coffins, in the baggage car?? :unsure:

I don't know about this particular case, but in the UK I believe it was normal to have one person ride with the corpse and be responsible for it. It might have been an undertaker or a family member. I don't know why exactly. Maybe to assure piety and see that the other assorted junk that gets put in the baggage car is kept away from the coffin.

In the above case, it would seem there was no gangway connecvtion to the rest of the train. Therefore this person wouldn't have been able to go to the bathroom for example, or get something to eat.

There is a connection and crew members can pass from the baggage car to the rest of the train, although the door to the baggage car is and was normally kept locked. On single level trains, that isn't an issue and with Santa Fe Hi-Levels and Superliners that is what the Hi-Level transition cars and the Superliner Transdorms are for.

I don't know if in the day mourners/funeral directors rode the in the baggage car with the remains in the US, but I sort of doubt it. Human remains were routinely transported by rail.

By the way, Amtrak still will ship human remains via Amtrak Express. So folks in Superliner Coach-Bags may very well be riding above a corpse sometimes.

 

[the_traveler]

As long as the corpse is not the person sitting in the seat next to me!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Interesting Post! Lots of Famous People's Caskets were hauled on Funeral Trains including Presidents Lincoln,Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Senator Bobby Kennedy from New York to Washington! When my late wife died and I was applying for a Permit from the Canadian Government to take her ashes to Canada for Burial, the Consular General in Dallas asked me if the remains would be traveling via Plane, Train or Land and the Permit was marked as such (Plane in this case!)

The Agents in Austin told me that they ship/receive occasional bodies on the Eagle and that Amtrak Policy requires a Licensed Funeral Director to load/unload the Casket from the Coach/Baggage Car! (The Texas Eagle doesnt have a Baggage Car!)

Since Texas Law doesn't require Embalming, one hopes that the deceased has been gone a short time when they have to ride in the Coach/Bag Car especially in the Summer!

 

[Ispolkom]

I don't know if in the day mourners/funeral directors rode the in the baggage car with the remains in the US, but I sort of doubt it. Human remains were routinely transported by rail.
By the way, Amtrak still will ship human remains via Amtrak Express. So folks in Superliner Coach-Bags may very well be riding above a corpse sometimes.

I think that the limitation on transporting remains on fancy name trains (the Great Northern Empire Builder was another one with such a ban) had more to do with limited baggage space and limited time to load and unload baggage (including remains) at intermediate stations, than with any other issue. It was just easier to put cargo like that on the trains with easier schedules.

As for Amtrak, I was once in coach on #28, in the coach-baggage car, and saw them loading a casket on board at Rugby. The tip-off? The big sign on the top of the box that said, "Human Remains."

 

[ehbowen]

Looking at the 1938 equipment listing for El Capitan, I find that the baggage-dorm contained not only crew dormitory space, but also 32 coach seats. With all of that there probably wasn't a whole lot of room left over in the baggage compartment.

 

[RampWidget]

As for Amtrak, I was once in coach on #28, in the coach-baggage car, and saw them loading a casket on board at Rugby. The tip-off? The big sign on the top of the box that said, "Human Remains."

Not only that, but you'll also see lettering on top of the box that reads simply "HEAD." Yes, that means exactly that. It's there mostly for when remains shipments are transported by air. It's necessary for the box to remain either level or head-elevated, and that can mean different loading procedures on different kinds of aircraft. I'll let you use your imagination as to why the head has to be level or higher. :wacko:

 

[shelzp]

When my mom died we sent her from California to the Midwest to be buried and we sort of joked that it was probably the first time she 'flew first class' because we had to buy a first class ticket plus pay a $100 fee and we all agreed that she had never flown anything other than coach. I wish we would have thought of Amtrak because it seems more dignified somehow and would have been more in line with her low profile style.

 

[NW cannonball]

I don't know if in the day mourners/funeral directors rode the in the baggage car with the remains in the US, but I sort of doubt it. Human remains were routinely transported by rail.
By the way, Amtrak still will ship human remains via Amtrak Express. So folks in Superliner Coach-Bags may very well be riding above a corpse sometimes.

I think that the limitation on transporting remains on fancy name trains (the Great Northern Empire Builder was another one with such a ban) had more to do with limited baggage space and limited time to load and unload baggage (including remains) at intermediate stations, than with any other issue. It was just easier to put cargo like that on the trains with easier schedules.

As for Amtrak, I was once in coach on #28, in the coach-baggage car, and saw them loading a casket on board at Rugby. The tip-off? The big sign on the top of the box that said, "Human Remains."

I hope that, if my relatives ever have to ship my remains (cremains, whatever) they ship Amtrak.

When, as sometimes happens to me, the gout makes it impossible for me to sleep in my coach seat, I will sleep on the floor in the coach-baggage -- and "human remains" in the same space doesn't bother me at all. Rest in peace - the living with the dead.

When my mom died we sent her from California to the Midwest to be buried and we sort of joked that it was probably the first time she 'flew first class' because we had to buy a first class ticket plus pay a $100 fee and we all agreed that she had never flown anything other than coach. I wish we would have thought of Amtrak because it seems more dignified somehow and would have been more in line with her low profile style.

Yup agree "more dignified somehow"

In any case - transporting remains is something Amtrak does -- and glad they do it.

(Won't tell you my father-in-law's story about transporting remains from Des Moines to Chicago in the 1940's in a broke-down pickup with not enough papers - that would be way off-topic)

 

[Steve4031]

As long as the corpse is not the person sitting in the seat next to me!

It's worse when you get 1 as an lsa or sca.

 

[oldtimer]

As long as the corpse is not the person sitting in the seat next to me!

It's worse when you get 1 as an lsa or sca.

Just as a point of interest Amtrak employees actually get one "last" ride as their pass is good for transporting their remains!One limit it is only for a one-way trip.

 

[cirdan]

As for Amtrak, I was once in coach on #28, in the coach-baggage car, and saw them loading a casket on board at Rugby. The tip-off? The big sign on the top of the box that said, "Human Remains."

Not only that, but you'll also see lettering on top of the box that reads simply "HEAD." Yes, that means exactly that. It's there mostly for when remains shipments are transported by air. It's necessary for the box to remain either level or head-elevated, and that can mean different loading procedures on different kinds of aircraft. I'll let you use your imagination as to why the head has to be level or higher. :wacko:

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