Passenger Car Order

[Monday Morning Red]

Newbie to the forum - First post.  I hope youall don't think this is a dumb question.  I'm into passenger trains  and I'm wondering if  there an prototypical order inwhich the cars are arranged behind the power unit.   I know the baggage cars are usually at the front, and the observation car is always at the rear. But what about the coachs, diners, sleepers and such?  How should they be placed in the makeup of the train?  If this is common knowledge, I musta missed it. If it's published somewhere, please tell me where to find it.  Thanks in advance for helping a kid who's just starting out.   MMR.

[challenger3980]

Yes baggage cars would be at the front, but if there were an RPO (Railway Post Office), It and any mail loaded baggage cars would be ahead of any "Working" baggage cars. RPOs were locked, and the postal workers were armed, there was NO pass through of non postal personell in an RPO.

 The observation as you said would be at the rear, and would typically include a lounge area for the "extra fare" passengers, sleeping cars would generally be ahead of the Observation, with coaches trailing the head-end cars.

 Diners were often placed between the sleeping cars and the coaches, it would be common to run the diner kitchen first, that would permit the "extra fare" passengers direct access to the dining area, and allow the coach passengers to line up in the passageway outside the kitchen portion of the car.

All of the above were generalaities, but there were exceptions.

Doug

[Anonymous]

Doug,
That makes sense. Based on what you posted and pictures I have seen... I think this is the order depending on what type of cars were being hauled:

Motive Power
RPO(s)
Baggage Car(s)
Combo Car (baggage/coach)
Coach Cars
Dome Car(s)
Dinner
Sleeper Car(s)
Observation

The Sleeper Cars were placed as far from the Motive Power as possible so sleeping passengers would not be 'disturbed', also the Dome Cars were placed as far from the Motive Power so the smoke from the steamers wouldn't obstruct the view.

[steinmike]

Guys:

One other thought - on trains that had (or have) both sleeper and coach sections these cars are kept together so that coach passengers don't have to walk through the sleepers to get to the diner.

I took Amtrk's California Zephyr last year and the sleepers were in the front of the train behind the baggage cars (both east and west bound) followed by the diner, lounge car, and coaches.

Mike 

[challenger3980]

steinmike

Guys:

One other thought - on trains that had (or have) both sleeper and coach sections these cars are kept together so that coach passengers don't have to walk through the sleepers to get to the diner.

I took Amtrk's California Zephyr last year and the sleepers were in the front of the train behind the baggage cars (both east and west bound) followed by the diner, lounge car, and coaches.

Mike 

 

I guess, we need to ask, What era are you modeling? The OP, mentioned Observation cars, which aren't used anymore (by Amtrak, anyway) so I assumed he was modeling the "Classic" era of train travel, Amtrak could be arranged much differently.

As I posted in my previous post, those were generalities, which would have been typical in Pre-Amtrak days.

Doug