If a trainset was made of an RDC-1 coach, an RDC-2 combine, and an RDC-4 RPO, is there a "standard" way they would have been arranged?
.
Would it really matter?
Thanks.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
In the interest of aesthetics I would run mine with the RPO (RDC4) at one end, baggage compartment adjoining baggage compartment of the following combine (RDC2) then the (RDC1) full coach at the other end, thus:
RDC_3unit by Edmund, on Flickr
If at all possible, the railroad (or the P.O.) prefered to have the RPO segregated from general passenger access by having baggage, express or mail storage blocking access to the mail apartment.
Good Luck, Ed
* I mistakenly used an RDC4 in the example, but you get the idea, I hope
Having grown up in South Australia, I tend to use the old SA Railways edict of the baggage end facing Adelaide. The SAR had RDC-2 (250 class) and RDC-4 (280 class) lookalikes as power cars while the RDC1 type cars (100 class)were trailers known universally as Bluebirds. I think it esthetically looks better as well and my baggage ends face the "Eastern End" of my railway.
Because of the design and loading limits, we did not have roof top radiator domes on these cars and they were excellent riders. We did have a comparison in that the Commonwealth Railways had 3 stock RDC1's and they were good to although a bit pedestrian in terms of desert travel.
Cheers from Australia
Trevor
My suggestion would be to put the RDC-1 between the RDC-2 and RDC-3, which would have their passenger carrying compartments coupled to the RDC-1. This reduces the potential for people wandering through the baggage areas, and access to the postal apartment of the RDC-3 is restricted to postal employees only. It consolidates the passenger loading/unloading points to two, speeding those processes and reducing dwell time at stops. Better crowd control and concentration of toilet facilities in just two points. This would be the way I would arrange them if they were to normally be operated together.
Most likely as NHTX says, with all the passenger accommodation together and the baggage/RPO ends facing out. That way there is no need to turn the set at the end of the run, simply turn the seats as required.
OK, I think this makes sense to put all the passenger compartments in the middle.
Thanks to everyone that helped out.