Large luggage on European trains

[Daveller]

A silly story to tell you that... I was on the ICE train, my suitcase was big and heavy - about 28kg. So I saw the luggage storage was full and decided to put it in my aisle. Then a nice young muscular man helped me to lift the suitcase to the overhead bin. I didn't want to put it in the overhead bin because I was worried that it could break the overhead bin but he was local and had seen them many times. Then after a young man and his friend left early, then I was able to carry it back to the floor.

 

[Forg]

A silly story to tell you that... I was on the ICE train, my suitcase was big and heavy - about 28kg. So I saw the luggage storage was full and decided to put it in my aisle. Then a nice young muscular man helped me to lift the suitcase to the overhead bin. I didn't want to put it in the overhead bin because I was worried that it could break the overhead bin but he was local and had seen them many times. Then after a young man and his friend left early, then I was able to carry it back to the floor.

A mate used to semi-regularly catch an overnight flight to Tokyo on a Friday evening, travel ‘round (used & new) performance car parts shops & buy stuff that was <10% the price of here, fly home on the overnight Sunday night flight and go to work Monday in probably the same clothes he’d been wearing on Friday.

Having set the scene … they carried all sorts of stuff onboard, against the rules, and shoved it in the overhead bins. They had a bunch of brakes & other parts in a duffle-bag once, which someone weighed at over 50kg when they got home (and remember it was shoved into the overhead bin next to other heavy stuff - although not as heavy).
I wouldn’t have done it myself but those racks handle a lot more than you’re actually allowed to put in them! Although I can envisage all sorts of Bad Things happening in hefty turbulence …

 

[mel-world]

We have done a lot of train travel on Eurail passes, mainly around western Europe and the UK. Most of my comments concur with what has been reported early except the added challenge of platform heights, especially at regional stations where the train will only stop for a minute or two and you firstly have to hoist your bags up a metre or so and then scramble up after them.

As mentioned above, double-decker trains present another issue if you are not steady on your feet and have to negotiate heavy bags up a moving train before you even look for storage space. Joining a train at its starting station is obviously an advantage - mind the rush - and travelling 1st Class is a small advantage although some Europeans think is is okay to take 4 seats for 2 people spreading their possessions over all remaining space.

We tend to travel with a medium sized suitcase each, a backpack and a personal bag for valuables. Worse case some can go in the overhead racks and you are not overloaded for the inevitable pickpockets at busy stations. We nearly go robbed at Venice a year of so ago but the security catch on our bag defeated them.

 

[Quickstatus]

They had a bunch of brakes & other parts in a duffle-bag once, which someone weighed at over 50kg when they got home

I once had a ride -on- mower transmission along with chainsaw chains in a checked luggage coming back from the USA. So much cheaper in the US