Carry-on ski bag on a Superliner Sleeper

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FreeskierInVT

Lead Service Attendant
Joined
Jul 30, 2013
Messages
387
Location
Mad River Valley, VT
With the ongoing flooding issues along the California Zephyr route, I switched the reservation I have in a week and a half to only go from Emeryville to Denver, then diverting to Raton, NM to catch the next day's Southwest Chief to Chicago. I know the Chief isn't immune to the flooding going on in the Midwest but it doesn't seem to be impacted as severely, and after Amtrak telling me my mom and I could be stranded in Denver or anywhere along the line "for weeks" if the train suddenly gets cancelled since we're travelling in a Handicap Bedroom, we couldn't take the gamble. We now have ~26 hours in Chicago before catching the Cardinal to NYC, instead of 2 days.

The issue now becomes what to do with my large ski bag that I was going to check from Emeryville straight to New York. If I check it to Denver, and carry it on the Chief from Raton to Chicago, I have no idea where it would go, since a bag that size has no chance of fitting in a room, nor even the luggage rack that Superliner sleepers have. It's 71.7 inches in height, just shy of the 72 inch height limit for ski equipment. I've carried this bag onboard numerous times on Amfleet coaches on the Vermonter and Ethan Allen and even an Acela (where it fit in the old phone booth in the First Class car) but never a Superliner. I'm not sure it would even fit in a Superliner coach overhead luggage rack, since getting it up the stairs would be a challenge and a half.

One option I was considering was checking my ski bag at Sacramento the night before, since I'll be passing near SAC station the evening before I depart EMY, to go via the southbound Coast Starlight to LAX, then on the following days SW Chief (the departure I'd end up on at RAT). Would Amtrak allow me to check a bag at a station I am not boarding at but technically travelling through? I'm very hesitant to check the bag on a San Joaquin/Thruway Bus since when I traveled on that itinerary last winter, my checked ski bag wasn't transferred to the bus at Bakersfield and was left out on a sidewalk for anyone to take for 2+ hours until Amtrak found it. Additionally, since I'm worried about the Zephyr making it to Chicago, I'd rather avoid checking it to travel straight through on the Zephyr since my final destination isn't NYP (taking the Vermonter home the day after arriving to NYP on the Cardinal)

I realize this is a rather unusual question but any advice is appreciated! And yes, I know it's summer but part of my trip consists of summer skiing at Mammoth Mountain, California :)
 
Superliners have a ski locker accessible from the outside.

and i have had my ski bag placed in this locker on previous trips on the cz by the car attendant when boarding -- these outside lockers are found on both sleeper and coach superliners
 
Ended up postponing my trip to August but following the same itinerary (EMY-DEN on the Zephyr, RAT-CHI on the Chief, CHI-NYP on the Cardinal)

Any chance you guys have a picture of that locker? I wasn't aware anything like that existed!
 
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