My daughter loading her bike on the Amtrak Cascade in Portland heading toward Albany. My wife and I have used the Cascade numerous times to get home from a connecting train (Empire Builder) or The PDX Airport. We have also used it several times to get from Albany to Vancouver, BC when it was going there prior to Covid. We only live 35 miles from Albany so it is is easy to ride to the station or ride home from the station.
You have to be able to lift your bike into the baggage car. The Amtrak person will not help you. However , an Amtrak employee helped me when I had 2 bikes relatively far from the baggage cars. She rolled it down to the baggage car, and even lifted it up to the the guy in the car. We used Amtrak last summer, and it was the same drill. It beats the heck out boxing the bikes
My experience has been with the baggage car being relatively close to the engine, and several cars in front of the coaches we've used. Starting from Albany our method of boarding is to unload the bikes and place our panniers about where we think the passenger coaches will be, and put the bikes toward the north end of the platform. One of us loads the bikes, while the other loads the gear into the passenger car. There is plenty of time to load everything if you are alone. It is a small station, and no one will bother the bikes or gear.
