This is an interesting conundrum as the set has a 1st/2nd and a 1st/2nd/3rd as well as the 2nd/3rd and 3rd...

And if at any point in the route the train entered a Terminal station, the car order would be reversed unless they went through a great kerfuffle of jockeying the order of the cars.

I know that does not help a lot, sorry

And caveat time, correct or not, I have heard/read the other way round: The 1st class went at the end of the train to be farthest away from the steam and cinders (hoping that the wind would dissipate all of the undesirable stuff)

No doubt I shall find (and welcome) some corrections to my analysis as we tread this thread.

There are likely no hard and fast rules for coach order, only generalities. Note that on DRG Set #4228 Rheingold there is a baggage car on either end of the rake of coaches. This would allow a baggage car at the head end, even if the train entered a stub end station and was pulled out "backwards". Note that this is true on the new Edelweiss set as well.

In general first class were toward the end of the train, but next to the dining car if possible. Even on modern trains, 1st class tends to be next to dining services. If you are on a 2d class coach next to the dining car, you can kind of "poach" on first class by buying yourself a snack or meal!

that ^^^^

First coaches In the middle of the consist, to avoid a long walk to the station abortion.
Fleischmann have put taillights in Era I 3rd class cars, from memory.


Diner next to first to avoid contamination with 3rd class
You can't use the diner with anything less that a second class ticket-premium being paid.

Rheingold, by definition, does this.
It was stupid to include Rheingold or CIWL into this discussion as they exclude 3rd class and often include a baggage car at both ends.

Edited by user 01 March 2025 04:40:23(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Yeah, the kurzwagon issue complicate things. Kurzwagon trains e.g. a baggage and one/two AB coaches are an exception; but most of those passengers would not be alighting anyway. They may have just been added to the end of the main train, or inserted into it; I don't know the answer to that.

But the question related to Era I mainly and I think in that context the last car with tail lighting, would likely be a third class. If we're talking international or CIWL routes, then in most cases this would be a baggage car. I don't think these premium service trains actually carried third class cars.

My own example for era I would be: Loco:Pw4u:C4u:B4u:A4u:Dining:AB4u:C4u

This puts the first class some distance from the loco as some have suggested it should be.
Again, third class passengers are distanced from the restaurant, as they should have no access to it.
These are likely to be the folks we see buying from platform vendors in those old photos. I have wondered about "were they coupled so the corridors joined on one side" and I would err on doing that, if only to facilitate the vendoring process. But I'm just guessing that.

I don't think that this was true. For a through station, it may have been preferable to have the 1st class coaches in the middle, as these would then be the ones right in front of the station building.
For so-called Kopf Bahnhofs (terminal stations), the preferred option probably would have been to have the first class right behind the locomotive, as this would mean that they would be the closest coaches to the station concourse. This would, on the other hand, mean that the first class coaches would then be at the end of the train when the train departed to it's next station and passengers would have the longest walk at the next station.

Perhaps somebody who has Michael Reinhold's Zugbilding Epoches I and II (Miba Verlag) can contribute to this discussion.

Regards

Mike C

Thanks all. In the end I'm not putting marker lights on any coaches, but I will arrange the set as follows:

Loco- Baggage- Red/Brown coaches 3rd class, then to 2nd class. From there the Green coaches, ending with 3rd class again. I could then flip them either direction and 3rd class will be on the ends, 1/2 (somewhat) in the middle

Thanks for all the input!

If you'd like to run your 4228 with the second class cars behind the loco, followed by the first class cars and then the baggage car, then that's fine.
Protoypically speaking, at some point in the journey, the order would have been reversed and the second class cars would be at 'the end of the train'.

May I add to the general confusion by humbly pointing out that the German term for these "through coaches" is not Kurzwagon or Kurzwagen (which would mean "short carriage") but Kurswagen with an "s" in the middle.

A liberally modified DeepL translation of Kurswagen sounds like this: Through wagons are one or more railroad passenger carriages with a route that deviates from the rest of the train in some sections. If there are several course wagons, this is also referred to as a course wagon group. The train carrying a course wagon or a course wagon group is referred to as the main train or course wagon carrier.

Did you have a position on where the First class coach in an era 1 consist might be located? You're clearly quite knowledgeable.

The 44096 is actually my exact set! Running with the 37118 Blue Lady Class C :)