I visited my MRR-pusher on friday and came out on the street with a set of ep.3 Langenschwalbacher passengercars among other things. I came home today and after dinner I put the consist together, and it is really nice [:p]

Was there any rules on where to put the car(s) with first class compartment(s) in the train?

Had "all" passenger trains (local and regional) first class compartment(s)?

We are appearantly on two different stages of the disease (Du husker kanskje sangen om Ståle Krapyl på byens HIFI-asyl? Du bli'kke rekti' fresk før du har hatt det rekti' ille)



I was away for the weekend, patiently waiting for monday to come

There are not strict rules, but:
— Most of the time the first class is on the most calm side of the train, most of the time the first class are the last cars in the train. If not, the first class cars are divided from the locomotive by bagage cars.
— If there is a dining car in the train, the kitchen is at the 2nd or 3rd class side, the lounge of the dining car at the 1st class side of the train.
— Splitting or combining cars can break this rules.
— If a car has 3rd/2nd and 1st class compartments, the 1st class compartments are NOT above the wheels or the bogies.

But again, these are not strict rules.

Other example:

On the NS diesel train sets, the first class was in the most far car from the engine car:



As you can see, the 2nd class was next to the engine of the train:

Nice pictures.

Hi Markus,

Thanks for the reply! I understand that you have some knowledge about this area and the cars in question. Do you know what kind of engine that would be prototypical in front of these cars? Right now the v140 hauls mine (not so prototypical), but I think maybe the BR85 would look cool too.

Cool,thanks for sharing the pictures.It is class 7MT Britannia.

For Germany, as pointed out, its a mixed bag.

Some train stations in large cities there, are dead-end stations, so the engine pulls the train in and is stuck. A new engine is attached to the former back end, and then the train leaves in the opposite direction from how it came in.

Some of these dead-end train stations can have very long platforms. You would typically want the 1st class to be closest to the street side - less walking when getting on board. Or if the train ends in such a station - you want the 1st class to end closest to the street.

As stated, cars are added or split off as well. I remember catching trains in my youth and having to check the destination cities of the CARS as as I got on board to be sure I could stay seated in my car while the train went through Frankfurt a.M and end up where I wanted to go.

I would think the general rule of thumb would be you don't want 1st to be between groups of 2nd class cars if possible, to avoid all of the foot traffic thorugh the 1st class section. Putting the dining or bar car between the classes works great.

But this can be one of the great activities in modern hobby railroading. Your InterCity pulls into your dead-end station, and while there, its your job to re-arrange the cars and locomotive so the outbound train is in the same configuration. Not something that would happen for real unless all the passengers were let off first, but a fun activity.

I would say in most cases the 1st class wagon is the first (preferrably) or last in the train. If there is more than one, they are grouped together. If the train has a restaurant waggon it is situated next to the 1st class coaches or if it is a long train (more than 6 wagons or so) in the middle, but usually slightly towards the 1st class end.

Baggage wagons are always in one end of the train, and usually the rear end. It is acceptable for 1 st class passagengers to have to walk through the 2nd class wagons to get to the restaurant wagon, but you don't usually make passengers with 2nd class tickets pass through the 1st class.

In my collection I have a 1st class DB coach with tail lights, suggesting it would be the last in a train set...