adventurepdx

I've taken the Cascades from the Albany (Ore.) depot a couple times. It looks like Albany has checked baggage, though if you do the "trainside checked" you will need to wheel your bike to the baggage car. Any other things you check will be brought out by the station attendant. (When checking in at the station, they should tell you what end the baggage car will be. If they don't, ask.) Trainside checked is $5. If you want, you can choose to do the full "checking of the bike", but you'll have to box it and pay the checking fee, which is around $30 the last time I did it. (Don't quote me on the price.)

You say that you'll have four panniers plus tent and want to take it all to your seat. If this was me, I'd check two panniers at the counter. (You can't "check" it at the baggage car, and they aren't going to let you keep panniers or bags on the bike.) The checking of two bags is free, and it saves you the hassle of trying to drag so much gear to your seat in the couple minutes when the train is in the station. Plus, the car your seat is in may be on the opposite side of the train from the baggage car. Just make sure you organize your bags so that the stuff you don't need while sitting on the train for the next five hours or so is the stuff that's checked, not things that you can use on the train. They won't let you access the bags if you do. Extra clothes and camping gear would be in the bags I'd check.

One other thing to note is that the Baggage Car on the Cascades Talgo trainset is lower than the standard Amtrak fleet, so you don't need to lift it as high as you would have on the Cardinal. However, one Talgo trainset has been out of commission for a bit, so they've assigned some standard (East/Midwest) fleet equipment to the Cascades route. So it could be a lower lift, or it could not.