Last October, my wife and I traveled from Denver to Culpeper, VA (a few stations beyond Alexandria) on the California Zephyr, the Capitol Limited and NE Regional Train 171. They threw in the trip on Regional Train 171 for no extra charge. We checked our bags to Washington and then used redcap service from the Club Acela (we had access because we were in sleepers into Washington) onto the Regional train. So, the only place we had to wrestle luggage was at our final destination and the conductors helped us with that. I don't know how old you are or how adept your are at wrestling luggage, but the Regional train (with redcap service) seemed much easier to us. Of course, you'd want to tip the redcaps for their hard work!
BTW, redcaps have always done a good job for us. One time, our redcap recognized that a business car was subbing for a coach car on a NE Regional (departing Philadelphia) and got us into a great seat in that car. Needless to say, he earned a good tip!