Help a novelist--characters sneaking onto train

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!

well , one way is to be in the bathroom when the conductor comes around , not that plausible in real life , but probably good enough for a novel . another would be to have them tag onto a family already travelling in a family room .

David Benton wrote:well , one way is to be in the bathroom when the conductor comes around , not that plausible in real life , but probably good enough for a novel . another would be to have them tag onto a family already travelling in a family room .

hahah it sure is plausible in real life!!!

I would think that it would be much easier for a child or teenager to wander around a train unchecked without the conductor giving it a second thought - going to the cafe car, then the bathroom, then the lounge...most people don't carry their seatchekcs with them going to the toilet or cafe car.

Or if the train has a "smoke stop" where some people get off for a few minutes to have a smoke - if there was a few younger kids/adults (yea yea i know) out there smoking, they could strike up a conversation with them and no one would know the differnece if they all got on together.....

just a few thoughts! good luck with the book!!!

I confused myself on my answer, so I deleted it. Good luck on your book!

On a steam fantrip I knew of a TV news crew that brought their equipment onboard & were supposed to get off. They ended up getting a free ride since they forgot to get off for the photo runby. Makeup some story & stick too it. Hiding out in the bathroom or saying somebody else has the ticket may work.

Having a friend in the sleeper section may work. The teens may want to borrow a shower, sneak by the conductor & car attendant.
Could be fun for your novel to find ways to fool the crew. Have the dining crew send back a meal for an ailing elderly person.

Watch a DVD of Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 classic "North by Northwest"

In this Cary Grant hides in the toilet at the end of the club car on the 20th Century Limited until the ticket-checking conductors have passed by. (How he knew, from inside, that they had passed is anybody's guess, but that's Hitchcock)

Maybe then they could befriend a friendly lady fellow-passenger who would hide them in an upper berth as Eva Marie Saint does for Cary.

My trips on Amtrak were with a large group ... getting on was saying "we're with the group" (although I suppose that it helped that I knew the group's destination and the conductors knew they were a couple of people short boarding the group). I wasn't the leader and didn't have a ticket at any point during the trip. The conductor put a slip of paper above the seat marking where I was going and removed it right before my stop. Leaving Washington (train origin) the conductor took tickets after the train was underway ... the group leader had one ticket for the number of people who boarded. Getting on at a rural stop the ticket was checked at the door. I'd say getting on the train would be easier at the train origin merging with a mass of humanity (unless the conductors looked for tickets as people boarded and checked the contents later ... perhaps the kids could have found a discarded ticket and flashed it at the conductor?)

Once on the train it would seem that being in a coach would be the easiest place to be discovered. You would have to find an empty seat and add a properly marked slip of paper (marked in a way that the conductor would think that another conductor placed it there ... perhaps plausible but I expect in real life difficult as the first conductor on the trip would remember leaving the slip and the conductors later in the trip (if there was a crew change) would recognize each other's markings. Elsewhere, like the viewliner car, would be safe during some parts of the trip but at some point you have to find a seat. The diner on my trip was by reservation ... not an easy place to be inconspicuous.

Then again, this is an adventure ... and the plot is that they are following someone on the train. If they are following someone they need to not only elude detection by the conductors but also keep an eye on the someone while eluding detection by them. Plausible changes when into that kind of adventure.

you tube the young ones - train trip or something like that . i remember theres about 4 of them in the toilet , only one has a ticket , when the conductor knocks on the door he hands the ticket out , as though he's the only one in there .

People steal seat checks all the time - and some people even have their own stash - thats more of a problem on Commuter trains, but im SURE it happens on Amtrak as well.

Probably the easiest solution is to give them dad's credit card and have them buy full-price adult tickets at a QuikTrak machine. According to Amtrak's website, a 15 year old with photo ID, such as a school ID, can buy tickets and travel unaccompanied, and her 13 year old sister could travel with her. It might be unusual, but it is acceptable. A ticket agent might be suspicious of the credit card though, which is why I suggest using the machine.

Sneaking onto the train would probably make a more interesting story. I think the hardest part would be getting onto the train without tickets. At some stations where people can walk onto the platforms without going through the station building this could be easy, but in larger cities it would be harder. If you have to go through the station to get on the platform, you usually have to show a ticket to get through. I've never been to Dallas, so I don't know what the station is like, but if they could get onto the platform, legitimately or otherwise, they could get on the train. According to the schedule, the stop in Dallas is 20 minutes, long enough for a entry to be unwatched.

Once on the train, I think they could certainly blend in in a coach, as long as they faked/stole seat checks, and a 15 year old could certainly figure out that a slip of paper with CHI written on it indicates someone going to Chicago. If they weren't discovered within the first couple of stops, they'd be ok. I think they'd be more likely to be found hiding in an empty sleeper room. First of all, it could be reserved for someone boarding at a later stop. Also, if they come and go from the room, they are likely to be spotted by a car attendent. (This actually happened to my sister, traveling with our parents in a sleeper at about the age of your characters. She went to the lounge car for a snack and on the way back was stopped by the attendent who checked to make sure she was supposed to be there.) If they stayed in the room, it could work, but might not be the most interesting way to go.

In reality, there's probably a pretty good chance that they'd be caught trying to sneak onto the train, or on the train before it left, but for the story it is plausible. You could also have the story include them getting caught on board by a conductor or car attendent who believes their story and lets them go, and maybe even gives them a little help.

Jtgshu wrote:People steal seat checks all the time - and some people even have their own stash - thats more of a problem on Commuter trains, but im SURE it happens on Amtrak as well.

Yup, I've seen that plenty of times in the past. Not too long ago was a particularly interesting incident. I was riding on the NEC (on an NJ Transit train), and a young girl (14 or 15 years old) boarded in Linden en route to Newark. She took a seat check from a man who was sleeping. But then, she sat down directly across from the man -- she didn't even move to another car or at least a distance away from the passenger from whom she stole the seat check. The conductor walked through collecting tickets, and she did not recognize the teenager. She asked the teenager where she was going to, and figured out what was going on when the girl said she was going to Newark, but had a seat check to New York. At this point, the commotion had woken up the passenger whose seat check was stolen, and told the conductor that the girl must had taken his seat check, because his was gone.

It was pretty funny, and of course the girl continued to insist that she bought a ticket, even when it was quite obvious that she was caught red-handed. She ended up lucky, because in the end the conductor got her to pay her for the fare (plus on-board surcharge) instead of being removed from the train by the police.

So yes, I can guarantee that teenagers will attempt to get a free ride on a train by swiping another passenger's seat check, and this might be a good option, especially if the characters are boarding at a busy station, where the conductor will not remember the faces of everyone who just got on.

At stations with a long stop many passengers will get off to smoke. If the kid were to look like they belonged to one of the smokers they could probably get on the train w/o too much attention, especially if they didn't have any obvious baggage. Once on board forging a seat check would not be hard as you just need a sharpie and a blank, which can often be found lying about. They are just rectangular pieces of stiff paper.

Should this novelist really be encouraging criminal activity? Ticketless travel costs rail companies and leads to increased fares for all. It's not a victimless crime.

george matthews wrote:Should this novelist really be encouraging criminal activity? Ticketless travel costs rail companies and leads to increased fares for all. It's not a victimless crime.

She's writing a novel, george, a work of fiction. Let's not get carried away with political correctness; after all, do authors who write murder mysteries "encourage criminal activity"? Jeez, lighten up.

This questions has been raised by a few posters. Let's face it, Tom Clancy isn't going to end his wars, and Clive Cussler isn't going to end his kidnapping. There's no point in making it difficult for a novelist to do a little research here.