Passenger Car "Stacking Order?"

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’m curious. I have a UP passenger train including coaches, baggage car, combine, observationm RPO. Is there a correct order in which these trains ran their cars?

2

Hello,

Usually sealed mail and storage cars went right behind the locomotives followed by the RPO’s then coaches,diner or cafe-buffetts, sleepers, lounges and fancier sleepers with the observation bringing up the end. Most trains adhered to steam era custom of keeping the highest paying customers as far away from the locos as possible as before A/C you had to deal with noise and cinders. It also depended on the train and how many sections were combined and split up at various places down the line. The Texas Chief on the Sante Fe split many cars off on its trek to Texas. In north Texas it split into two train as a sleeper and two coaches went to Dallas wer the rest went to Cleburne and other point south. The best place to look to see how a particular train was setup is by looking at a public timetable for your road and date. Hope this helps.

SB

3

Jack,

The normal configuration would be to have ‘Head End’ ars behind the engine. This would be bagage/express/mail cars. Then the coaches, with the diner ‘splitting’ the coaches and the sleepers, followed by the observation car.

In actual practice, cars were placed depending if they were making connections for other trains or were dropped/picked up enroute. Amtrak even places sleepers on both ends of the train. It makes it easier to switch out cars that ‘split’ at mid-route locations. Switching ‘fees’ can be expensive(even if you provide the crew/switcher).

In your case:

  • RPO(mail sorted en-route)

  • Baggage(could be sealed mail storage or express)

  • Combine(passenger baggage/coach seating)

  • Coaches

  • Observation

I noticed no Diner or Lounge/Buffet car. Maybe that Combine or Observation have food/beverage facilities? The Burlington Twin Zepyhyr had a Baggage/Buffet car ahead of the dome-coaches that served lite meals and had a bar/lounge in it. Your baggage car could be ahead of the RPO if it was to be set out at some point along the route. This would make switching it out easier. It is your layout and I am sure you can have a good reason for the configuration of your trains. Even the Milwaukee Road Morning Hiawatha at times would forward head-end cars from Milwaukee to Chicago behind the Skytop Observation!

Jim