Payloads
Payloads in German rail transport are goods that are carried by passengers and can therefore be transported in a passenger coach. If the luggage is so big or heavy that it cannot be carried by one person, it will only be transported as part of the freight transport. Passengers with payloads had to use 4th class , if available .
After the abolition of 4th class in 1928, wagons of this class continued to be operated in part as 3rd class passenger wagons with a load compartment . But also in vehicles built later for passenger transport such as the Hamburg S-Bahn trains or the three-axle Reko wagons of the DR , there was partially a load compartment. Today, corresponding passenger compartments are referred to as multi-purpose compartments . The term load compartment is only used in Germany today for museum reasons, especially for narrow-gauge railways .