A baggage car (US terminology) or luggage van (UK terminology) is a type of railway vehicle often forming part of the composition of passenger trains and used to carry passengers' checked baggage, as well as parcels ("express"). Being typically coupled at the front of the train behind the locomotive, this type of car is sometimes described as "head-end equipment". Passengers are not normally allowed access to baggage cars while trains are in motion.
A special type of baggage car came equipped with doors on one end to facilitate transport of large pieces of equipment and scenery for Broadway shows and other productions. These "theatrical" baggage cars were assigned theatrical names (i.e. Romeo and Juliet), and were similar to the "horse cars" that were used to transport racehorses.
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A resgodsvagn of the Swedish State Railways (SJ) in Malmö in 1988
Famous quotes containing the words baggage and/or car:
“It is up to my spirit to find the truth. But how? Grave uncertainty, each time the spirit feels beyond its own comprehension; when it, the explorer, is altogether to obscure land that it must search and where all its baggage is of no use. To search? That is not all: to create.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The car as we know it is on the way out. To a large extent, I deplore its passing, for as a basically old- fashioned machine, it enshrines a basically old-fashioned idea: freedom. In terms of pollution, noise and human life, the price of that freedom may be high, but perhaps the car, by the very muddle and confusion it causes, may be holding back the remorseless spread of the regimented, electronic society.”
—J.G. (James Graham)