Baggage car

Traditionally, passengers could hand in their luggage at the baggage counter of a railway station, where it was loaded into the baggage car and collected at the destination station. This service has largely been discontinued, although it still exists in Switzerland. After the end of this service, many baggage cars were adapted for bicycle transportation. Sometimes luggage can also be loaded directly by passengers, especially bicycles.

There are also combination baggage cars, which include other passenger areas (e.g. seating). In particular, multiple units often have only part of a car set aside for baggage. Modern commuter rail vehicles usually include a multi-purpose area where bicycles, strollers, heavy loads, and wheelchair users can be accommodated. By contrast, a full baggage car is sometimes referred to as a dedicated baggage car.

Baggage cars were mainly used in passenger trains, though there were also dedicated overnight baggage trains and freight train guard's vans that included baggage space.

Until the mid-20th century, baggage cars were generally marshalled immediately behind the locomotive for safety reasons. In Europe today, they are usually found at the front or rear of the train, though some trains have them in the middle.

The Deutsche Bahn phased out baggage cars in the early 1990s. In 1995, the last baggage counters were closed and baggage transport ceased.^[1]

In Prussia and Bavaria, baggage cars were built to standardised designs (Normalien) for both passenger and freight trains. Early cars were two- or three-axle designs with guard's compartments, loading doors, and raised lookout cupolas for train conductors.

(Details of Prussian and Bavarian baggage car designs can be included here in tables; see German article for full technical lists.)

From 1923, the Deutsche Reichsbahn built standardised two-axle baggage cars to match the Donnerbüchse corridor coaches. They had riveted steel bodies, loading doors on each side, and versions with or without conductor's cupolas. Later models (1928–1931) used welded construction.

Four-axle baggage cars for express and through trains were also introduced, some for prestigious trains such as the Rheingold Express. The last of these were withdrawn in the 1980s, though many were converted to departmental service.

After 1945, the Deutsche Bundesbahn converted surplus war-era passenger coaches into makeshift baggage cars (Behelfspackwagen), designated MPw4ie-50 (later MDie⁹⁹⁶). They were built from two former coaches mounted on a new frame. These cars remained in service well into the 1990s, often rebuilt with steel sheet sides and rubber gangway connections. Many were later used as auxiliary train cars.

From the 1950s, the DB introduced half-baggage cars as part of its rebuild coach programme, followed by designs based on the n-coach and UIC-X coach. From 1960, new full baggage cars of type Pw4üm-60 were built with roll-up doors and flexible interiors. In 1962 the designation was changed from Pw to D, later with super-scripted subtypes. Common later models included Dms⁹⁰², Dms⁹⁰⁵, BDms²⁷², and BDms²⁷³.

In Austria, baggage cars traditionally included a guard's compartment and—especially on local railway stock—were often combined with mail cars (for example, the kkStB type DF). With the Vienna Stadtbahn cars, half-baggage cars were introduced for the first time in Austria-Hungary, combining service and baggage compartments (plus a toilet). When trains were overcrowded, these cars also offered 12 auxiliary seats on folding chairs.^[2]

The Vienna–Pressburg local railway (LWP) followed this example with its passenger stock and thus avoided the need for separate guard's vans. In its BCDFah type, the LWP for the first time combined second- and third-class compartments with a baggage/guard's compartment and a postal section. The Niederösterreichische Landesbahnen (Lower Austrian Provincial Railways) also ordered some two-axle half-baggage cars for local lines, which included a third-class compartment.

Electric railcars for local lines, such as the kkStB 21.0 and kkStB 41/s.0 classes, were usually designed as half-baggage cars with a centrally located guard's/baggage compartment. The Komarek steam railcars kkStB 1.0 and NÖLB 40–44 also followed this layout.

During the interwar period, the BBÖ mostly introduced independent guard's/baggage vans; an exception were the CDa cars of the Krimml railway. After 1945, however, the ÖBB increasingly relied on the half-baggage design. As part of the Spantenwagen programme, several series were rebuilt in ÖBB workshops from older cars, both as standard-gauge two-axle versions (BDi) and as narrow-gauge four-axle versions for the Mariazell Railway (BD4). Pure baggage cars continued to be acquired and rebuilt as well. The BDi type was particularly common on branch lines, since regulations at the time required the train conductor to have a lockable compartment. This sometimes led to unusual formations consisting only of a single steam locomotive of class 93 or 52 and a BDi.

Among the Schlierenwagen, five different half-baggage designs with differently sized baggage compartments were built, while in the following series of domestic coaches (“long Schlieren”) only one such design was ordered.

As part of the Eurofima-derived coach programme, ÖBB had both 10 half-baggage cars (BDmsz) and 15 full baggage cars (Dmsz) built by SGP and Jenbacher. Beginning in 1989, a further 33 half-baggage cars of type BDmpsz 82-91 were delivered, featuring a second-class open saloon and a wheelchair area.

With the decline of baggage and express goods transport, all dedicated baggage cars have since been withdrawn from ÖBB service.