Is a bike chain to chain luggage together a good idea or a waste of luggage space? I bought a simple bike chain at Walmart, but it sure seems heavy. There are 4 of us traveling and we will be taking trains between Paris, Amsterdam, Rhine area, Rothenburg, Prague, Vienna, Venice, Florence, Rome, Cinque Terre, and Milan. We have two night trains, but we have reservations for our own compartment which I assume we can lock. We are taking 1 bag each, light enough to lift over our heads. Are there luggage areas by the doors of trains where we could store our bags, chained together? We would keep our cameras and other valuables in our day packs. I know we can always put the four suitcases in the racks over our seats. The advantage to the chain seems to be having the option to leave bags in a luggage area. We are on a budget and won't be eating at restaurant cars. Pack the chain or leave it behind?

With 4 people traveling together, I wouldn't bother. Yes you can bring your bags into your overnight compartments. And just plan to put them over head on day trains.

People traveling solo might find the chain more useful since no one around to watch their stuff.

Also I'm guessing locks made by the travel companies for this purpose specifically might be lighter weight?

You can buy a cable lock at any travel store which would be much lighter but still serve the purpose (nothing of course is fool proof). The cable retracts into the lock making it very small. With the right knife someone could slice it I am sure, but would take some extra effort.

We used a combination travel lock with a 48" cable, which retracted into the lock when not in use. It was not always possible to sit anywhere near the luggage/storage at the end of the car.
My husband did the locking/unlocking, so not sure if he actually threaded thru any framework, or maybe he just tied our bags to each other. You have to be careful you can get thru the crowd, unlock and remove your bags, and get off the train in time, and also not inconvenience others getting their bags.

Sometimes you can just hoist them onto a shelf over your head, but it isn't a big shelf. Occasionally, there are spaces among the seats, b/c 2 rows of seats will be back-to-back, leaving a 'cave' between them to slide a bag into.

Don't take larger than a 22" carryon bag and put it in the overhead rack. In busy season, there is never room to put your luggage by the car entrance anyway.

I would take the retractable cable lock (about $7 at any travel store) and use it on the overnight trains. The day trains i wouldn't worry too much about, as you will probably be able to keep an eye on them.

The cable lock saved me when I was robbed on the overnight train to Venice. We were in a sleeper compartment (no locks) and someone must have cut my day-purse off me. Luckily all they got was my rail pass and some chapstick. My backpack was locked up, and my credit card and passport were on my in my waist belt.

You don't need to buy a heavy link chain. My son just left and he bought a kryptonite type bike chain at REI. You just use it with a regular padlock. My daughter and her fiance backpacked through Europe using a Eurail pass and they both told him to be sure to get a lock so he could chain up his luggage when on the trains where there was a baggage place at the end of the car. One of my daughters friends had his tent stolen from an overhead train rack. We always take a chain and lock with us even when we are doing our traveling by car. It can come in handy other times too. We had an afternoon in Paris with no place to leave our luggage (we were in transit) and locked our suitcases to a coat rack in the Jacquemart Andre museum there.

We're going to be traveling by both the TGV & the EuroStar. We bought a very lightweight cable with a combo lock at Magellens Travel Store. It was $14. If you don't have a M near you, go on-line... www.magellens.com