I just got my issue of Classic Trains and it's a dandy, especially the article by Shirley Burman on the UP Park City Local with Steinheimner's photos.
I don't want to make a big deal about this, but I wonder if fans use the term "Mixed Train" too losely. This train carried passengers in a caboose, but by all my exposure to timetables and discussion with railroaders, the train would not be a mixed but a local that carried passengers in a caboose. According to a published source definition that has been lost to me, a mixed is a freight train with a passenger car or cars in it. And that could just be a baggage car too.
Rather than get into opinion or on the defensive, let's site some examples from the railroads' point of view. And this could very well be different from road to road.
For example, the Wabash had local freights that carried passengers in the caboose into the 60s. They were not listed as mixeds in the employee or public timetable. However, the locals freights with passenger cars like the Gary Local and at least one of the trains on the Columbia Branch were listed as mixeds.
Again, let's comment on this based on the railroads definition rather than the railfan's.
Thanks in advance.
I think "mixed train" was defined for the ICC as a train that carried both passengers and freight. Usually it meant a passenger car or cars behind the freight. Sometimes it was a caboose ride. Usually a mixed train was actually scheduled and listed in the guide and timetables which usually indicated a passenger coach or combine rather than caboose.
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The practice varied from railroad to railroad. On some railroads, like the Georgia, a mixed train could simply be a freight train that allowed passengers to ride in the caboose. This allowed flexibility in terms of adding the coach or not depending on demand. Others did make a distinction between the two types of trains (passengers in the caboose or both freight and pasenger cars) in the timetables.
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