Help a novelist--characters sneaking onto train

If it was a small child, he could hide in a suicase and then it would be a BOGO event.

I remember one time I brought 20 bottles of Vitiamin Water home for my girlfriend at the time. No one asked whjy my bag was soo heavy.

gprimr1 wrote:If it was a small child, he could hide in a suicase and then it would be a BOGO event.

I remember one time I brought 20 bottles of Vitiamin Water home for my girlfriend at the time. No one asked whjy my bag was soo heavy.

And imagine trying to FLY with one bottle of Vitamin water

Shalanna wrote:Hi! I am a novelist working on a young adult adventure novel (still in early stages, unsold).
My teen characters--fifteen and thirteen--are sisters who are trying to rescue their cousin, who has been taken by her evil boyfriend (with magical powers, though that's not the focus of the book). They sneak onto an Amtrak train in order to follow the suspect. My question, of course, is--how plausible is this? I don't want to write this in such a way that teens can actually copy their method and get away with a free fare, yet I'd like it to be plausible to all readers except hardcore Amtrak riders and employees.

I was thinking of having them hop the Texas Eagle from Dallas to Chicago. We rode this twice last year with great pleasure. I remember the conductor came to take our tickets sometime after we'd departed . . . I think we had to show SOMEthing when we got on with our carry-ons. We had a roomette. My thought is, maybe the girls find a family bedroom that's vacant on that ride, or they find some way to evade the conductor because he thinks they're part of a traveling girls' baton twirling company, or a school trip, or a large family. I don't mind them having to dodge and get off before Chicago to follow the suspect . . . if there's a segment of the trip where they'd be more likely not to be noticed, that'd be good. This is an adventure novel, anyhow. (grin) Maybe they'd have to have Daddy's credit card . . . would that be suspicious?

Anyone feel like helping me out? Either here or contact me at shalanna dot collins at gmail dot com. Thanks so much!

Contact the author off-list, I think we're done helping people sneak onto a train.