Retrieving Luggage in the old days

[National Limited]

I've checked and retrieved luggage at NYP, PHL, and WAS in addition to smaller stations. I know that WAS and PHL have carousels and NYP uses a much less convenient method. I'm curious to know how large stations in the 40's and 50's took care of returning luggage (like Kansas City, Chicago, etc) to passengers upon their arrival at their destination prior to the advent of the airport carousels. Did they return them as NYP does today or use some other method?

 

[Ispolkom]

I've checked and retrieved luggage at NYP, PHL, and WAS in addition to smaller stations. I know that WAS and PHL have carousels and NYP uses a much less convenient method. I'm curious to know how large stations in the 40's and 50's took care of returning luggage (like Kansas City, Chicago, etc) to passengers upon their arrival at their destination prior to the advent of the airport carousels. Did they return them as NYP does today or use some other method?

Others with actual knowledge will chime in, I'm sure, but I like to think that on the 20th Century Limited when you arrived in New York you could do like Fred Astaire does at the beginning of "The Band Wagon." As he's stepping on to the red carpet he blithely tells the porter to send his luggage (extensive, expensive, and matching, of course) over to the Plaza Hotel and then waltzes off. I fear that the reality was not such.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I have no idea because I have never checked bags on the train at all, not even once. I have only done it on planes and then only when I had no choice.

So, why am I responding?

Because I think I have observed one difference through the years. And that is not at the receiving of luggage but rather the checking it in. Seems to me people used to go to the baggage room BOTH to check the luggage on the train, plane or bus as well as at the picking up. Rather than checking them in at the ticket counter.

At least that is the way I think I have seen it change, but without participating in the process myself I could be wrong.

Seems like the first time I noticed it was at the Greyhound station in Chattanooga and then it eventually spread to other modes.

 

[PRR 60]

My earliest rail baggage recollection was a trip in 1963. We used the baggage room at both ends.

My air recollection is a little older dating to the days I would head down to send off or meet my dad coming back from a trip. It least in the late 1950's, airline baggage was handled much like today: handed in at the check-in counter, then picked up at the baggage claim area. Back then baggage claim was usually a room with an open wall with shelves. Baggage carts on one side would be unloaded and the bags placed on the shelves, and the passengers on the other would claim them. Belts and carousels came along a little later.

Of course, in the 1950's a really special arrival of a transcon Super G Constellation would unload maybe 75 passengers and bags. Now a regional jet can unload that many.

 

[sky12065]

I can't say about checking bags at the train station, but in the mid 70's I remember arriving at the airport and there was a porter stationed outside the entrance to the terminal with a cart. They would check you tickets then place the appropriate routing tag on your luggage and send you on your way without having to lug around your luggage until you could get to a baggage check point where you would usually have to wait in line with other people waiting to check in their luggage.

 

[wayman]

Because I think I have observed one difference through the years. And that is not at the receiving of luggage but rather the checking it in. Seems to me people used to go to the baggage room BOTH to check the luggage on the train, plane or bus as well as at the picking up. Rather than checking them in at the ticket counter.

Ticketing and baggage counters are still separate in Philadelphia, but we may be one of the last?

 

[AlanB]

Because I think I have observed one difference through the years. And that is not at the receiving of luggage but rather the checking it in. Seems to me people used to go to the baggage room BOTH to check the luggage on the train, plane or bus as well as at the picking up. Rather than checking them in at the ticket counter.

Ticketing and baggage counters are still separate in Philadelphia, but we may be one of the last?

Still separate at NYP too.

 

[D T Nelson]

Because I think I have observed one difference through the years. And that is not at the receiving of luggage but rather the checking it in. Seems to me people used to go to the baggage room BOTH to check the luggage on the train, plane or bus as well as at the picking up. Rather than checking them in at the ticket counter.

Ticketing and baggage counters are still separate in Philadelphia, but we may be one of the last?

Still separate at NYP too.

The baggage counter is separate from the ticketing counter at King Street Station in Seattle.

 

[Amtrak OBS Gone Freight]

Separate baggage check/claim area in ORL, too.

Both "Auto Train" terminals have a separate baggage area from the ticket area, too. That's because your car is your baggage car! <_< :lol:

OBS gone freight...

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

Baggage area is separate as well in:

Portland, Oregon

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Cleveland, Ohio

 

[Amtrak839]

Baggage areas are still separate in Washington, D.C. and Alexandria. Although at D.C. it's the same counter, but you have to go to the far right end to check baggage. They have a carousel to pick up baggage. ALX still has a completely separate baggage room.

 

[PRR 60]

Separate in Denver as well.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Uh oh. Would somebody please pass the ketchup, the salt and the pepper? It might be about time for me to eat my hat.

As disclaimer, I did mention that I have never checked bags on the train in my life. So maybe I have been observing too carelessly. You DO surrender your bag at something like a ticket counter and not like a baggage room at many airports and bus stations, do you not? Or am I imagining that as well?

To be clear, I know baggage rooms still exist, I am just saying I thought people go there just to pick them up.

I am so sure I remember when the Greyhound bus in Chattanooga started taking your bags at the ticket window (even though you picked them up when your trip was over at bus side or in the baggage room) and that it spread to both train stations and the airport there as well.

I am sure I remember the grumbling when ticket agents had to assume that duty.

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

All the stations I listed, you didn't check bags at the ticket counter-- you had to go to the agent in the bag room.

 

[PRR 60]

...You DO surrender your bag at something like a ticket counter and not like a baggage room at many airports and bus stations, do you not? Or am I imagining that as well?

At airports, you do indeed check baggage at the check-in counter. There is also curbside luggage check-in at most larger airports, but that is one of the nickle and dime service charge items for most airlines.

As for bus stations, I haven't a clue. My next intercity bus trip will be my first intercity bus trip. I have no plans for a first. I think I'd rather stay home.

 

[the_traveler]

On my (very few - thankfully! ) intercity bus runs, I remember that I just loaded my bags (via the driver) under the bus at bus side, and retrieved them there also. But my last bus was like 15 years ago or more.

 

[MrFSS]

In the 1940's and 50's we would check our bags at the luggage room in Louisville and claim those bags in the luggage room in Chicago. Some small stations they took the bags off the train and placed them on a large cart such as REA used and you see in museums today, and you walked up to the cart and took your bag. Sort of like plane side checking today.

 

[Ctim2]

In the 1940's and 50's we would check our bags at the luggage room in Louisville and claim those bags in the luggage room in Chicago. Some small stations they took the bags off the train and placed them on a large cart such as REA used and you see in museums today, and you walked up to the cart and took your bag. Sort of like plane side checking today.

Did REA "Railroad Express Agency" ever do door to train to door service? Or train to hotel service? It seems that lately FedEx and others or trying to get into that type of luggage /baggage service.

Ctim2

 

[wayman]

...You DO surrender your bag at something like a ticket counter and not like a baggage room at many airports and bus stations, do you not? Or am I imagining that as well?

At airports, you do indeed check baggage at the check-in counter. There is also curbside luggage check-in at most larger airports, but that is one of the nickle and dime service charge items for most airlines.

As for bus stations, I haven't a clue. My next intercity bus trip will be my first intercity bus trip. I have no plans for a first. I think I'd rather stay home.

Up until the '80s ('90s maybe even?) at Lynchburg Regional Airport, you could "gate-check" your bags--take them out onto the tarmac and, at the base of the steps up into the plane an agent would take your bag, already tagged, and stow it in the baggage compartment of the aircraft. From then on, it was a checked bag (being transferred for you at Charlotte or wherever and winding up--hopefully!!!--on a luggage carousel at your final destination). I imagine this has been done away with nowadays, but I haven't flown into or out of Lynchburg in over a decade.

All the intercity buses I've ridden effectively "gate-check" bags as well. Megabus and Boltbus don't even have ticket counters/agents, since all reservations and ticketing are online; New Century and other Chinatown buses with ticket offices have the driver handle all luggage at the bus. Baggage is then unloaded at the curb upon arrival. All of these are different than Greyhound in one huge way: there are very, very few stops (often no intermediate stops at all).

 

[MrFSS]

In the 1940's and 50's we would check our bags at the luggage room in Louisville and claim those bags in the luggage room in Chicago. Some small stations they took the bags off the train and placed them on a large cart such as REA used and you see in museums today, and you walked up to the cart and took your bag. Sort of like plane side checking today.

Did REA "Railroad Express Agency" ever do door to train to door service? Or train to hotel service? It seems that lately FedEx and others or trying to get into that type of luggage /baggage service.

Ctim2

In 1961 I was stationed in Denver (Lowry AFB) My dad agreed to ship some of my personal stuff I wanted when I found out I would be there a while. He went to the local REA office in Kentucky and it came to Denver, but I had to go to Denver Union station to pick it.

That was my only experience with REA.

But the interesting thing about the story is this: The Kentucky station was Anchorage (East of Louisville) service by the C&O.

Dad shipped the stuff and sent me a letter with the claim stub, etc and an idea of when to expect it. It never showed, and never showed. Weeks went by and I figured they lost it. Then about 6 weeks later I got a call from REA in Denver saying they had my box. When I went down to the station I learned they had shipped it to Anchorage, Alaska, confusing the origin for the destination. But it finally made it to me intact. Only 6 weeks late.

 

[Shanghai]

In the 1940's and 50's we would check our bags at the luggage room in Louisville and claim those bags in the luggage room in Chicago. Some small stations they took the bags off the train and placed them on a large cart such as REA used and you see in museums today, and you walked up to the cart and took your bag. Sort of like plane side checking today.

It is still like the above in Dallas and Ft Lauderdale. You wait until the small tractor pulling the old style wagon loaded with baggage to the back of the station then you collect your bags. You also check your bags outside in Ft Lauderdale but in Dallas you check your luggage inside the terminal.

 

[National Limited]

In the 1940's and 50's we would check our bags at the luggage room in Louisville and claim those bags in the luggage room in Chicago. Some small stations they took the bags off the train and placed them on a large cart such as REA used and you see in museums today, and you walked up to the cart and took your bag. Sort of like plane side checking today.

So then is the luggage retrieval procedure at NYP (where you stand outside a room while the baggage handlers arrange luggage in the room, then, when allowed to enter the room you walk around the room to locate your luggage) the way that luggage was retrieved at most major stations? This to me seems very labor intensive and cumbersome. I would imagine that baggage rooms must have been chaos!

 

[jphjaxfl]

In the 1940's and 50's we would check our bags at the luggage room in Louisville and claim those bags in the luggage room in Chicago. Some small stations they took the bags off the train and placed them on a large cart such as REA used and you see in museums today, and you walked up to the cart and took your bag. Sort of like plane side checking today.

That is the way I remember checking bags in the pre Amtrak private railroad operations. In fact, we checked bags in Louisville at both Union Station known as 10th Street Station and Central Station known as 7th Street Station and collected them at the baggage room at our destination. Most Railroad Station baggage rooms had large sorting cases with small cubicals that contained luggage tags with the names of the major cities served by that station. They didn't have station codes like now, but the full name of the city and the state since many states had cities with the same name. For smaller stops and interline baggage, the baggage person would have to write out a tags. Most large stations had a position of baggage master who was in charge of the baggage room which included REA shipments as well. Even with multiple stations in places like Chicago where there were 6, through checked luggage was rarely lost.

 

[jackal]

But the interesting thing about the story is this: The Kentucky station was Anchorage (East of Louisville) service by the C&O.
Dad shipped the stuff and sent me a letter with the claim stub, etc and an idea of when to expect it. It never showed, and never showed. Weeks went by and I figured they lost it. Then about 6 weeks later I got a call from REA in Denver saying they had my box. When I went down to the station I learned they had shipped it to Anchorage, Alaska, confusing the origin for the destination. But it finally made it to me intact. Only 6 weeks late.

You know, I always wondered how landlocked Kentucky could have an Anchorage...

 

[MrFSS]

But the interesting thing about the story is this: The Kentucky station was Anchorage (East of Louisville) service by the C&O.
Dad shipped the stuff and sent me a letter with the claim stub, etc and an idea of when to expect it. It never showed, and never showed. Weeks went by and I figured they lost it. Then about 6 weeks later I got a call from REA in Denver saying they had my box. When I went down to the station I learned they had shipped it to Anchorage, Alaska, confusing the origin for the destination. But it finally made it to me intact. Only 6 weeks late.

You know, I always wondered how landlocked Kentucky could have an Anchorage...

We're very cosmopolitan. Within 50 miles of where I live we have an Athens, a Paris, and a Versailles.