I'm contemplating buying a 4169 dome car, but was wondering if anyone has any links to photos of the real thing in service?

What I know of the history follows: These were built for the Rheingold/Rheinpfeil services on DB, then sold for use in the "Apfelpfeil" trains. The company behind those went bust in the early '70s at which point the coaches were sold to Reisebüro Mittelthurgau and based at Konstanz, staying with them until 1999. I have one of the 1:93 Rheingold versions and the twin pack of Apfelpfeil examples offered a couple of years ago, so this would fill a gap in my collection.

What I mainly want to know is train formations. Did they only operate as a train of all five of them, or were they formed with other stock in charter trains? I can only find one photo which isn't much help as it just shows a lone dome car parked at a station.

The Panorama Coaches were used by the Reisebuero Mittelthurgau, a subsidiary of the Mittelthurgaubahn on excursion and charter traffic in Switzerland and throughout Europe.

In the early 1980s, special trips using one or more of these coaches were common on the Gotthard route, especially around the time of the 100th anniversary of the Gotthard Rail route in 1982.

Photos of the Panorama Coaches can be found in the last edition of Die Gotthardbahn by Marti & Trueb, which can usually be found on eBay or in Used Book Shops in Europe.

The coaches were acquired from the German Charter company Apfelpfeil in 1979. At the end of 1999, they were sold to Tagkompaniet in Sweden where they ran for a few years. Most of the surviving panorama coaches have since found their way back to Germany and are being refitted for use in charters and museum/historic trains.

I remember seeing a few photos of the trainset at www.polier.ch

Maerklin and Roco had models of this coach in 1:100, including a Maerklin model with digitally controlled waiters and other functions.
Lima released a model in 1:100 and later in exact 1:87

Regards

Mike C