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A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. In some countries, the term refers to a freight train carrying various different types of freight rather a single commodity. Although common in the early days of , by the 20th century they were largely confined to with little traffic. Typically, service was slower, because mixed trains usually involved the shunting (switching) of rolling stock at stops along the way. However, some earlier passenger expresses, which also hauled time-sensitive freight in covered goods wagons (), would now be termed mixed trains. Generally, toward the end of the mixed train era, shunting at intermediate stops had significantly diminished. Most railway passenger and freight services are now run separately.
Passenger trains that can carry travellers' cars on freight wagons at the rear of the train are excluded. Called motorail, such services operate in Austria, Turkey, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, Serbia, Australia, Canada, Chile, and the US.
Car shuttle trains, on which passengers travel within their vehicles, are also omitted.
Hourly dedicated freight services started to replaced mixed trains on the entire network by the 1960s. However, another mixed train service was reintroduced in 1967 through a deal with Legazpi mayor Luis Los Baños. A refrigerator car carrying agricultural produce was hauled alongside passenger trains to the Bicol Region. The service was short-lived and it was terminated after the April 1968 Mayon Volcano eruption. Train services eventually dwindled in ridership until all intercity rail services were suspended in 2013.
The Victorian Railways had a class of train called a "limited through mixed", which limited the amount of goods and ran to a set timetable. It was guaranteed to run even without waiting goods.
Forming another type of mixed train, railmotors or might haul one or two goods wagons or a goods brake van carrying some freight.
The Skitube Alpine Railway sometimes operates as a mixed service, as during winter there is no road access to Blue Cow Mountain.
To reduce smoke exposure, the passenger coaches were usually located well back from the locomotive. However, when heating was required during cold weather, the coaches connected immediately behind the locomotive, because most goods wagons lacked heating-pipe conduits.
Into the 1980s, the Deutsche Bundesbahn ran GmP trains occasionally, but adding or detaching rolling stock created long wait times at stops, which contributed to their demise. They are no longer found in Germany, Austria or Switzerland.
Passenger trains transporting skiers, in places like Interlaken, still haul an open wagon for ski equipment.
The shortcomings of mixed trains for passenger travel led the New Zealand Railways Department to investigate railcar technology in the early 20th century. Overseas designs could not be easily adapted to New Zealand owing to its rugged conditions, narrow gauge track, and small loading gauge. Early railcars trials, such as the RM class Model T Ford railbuses, proved unsatisfactory. When successfully introduced from the 1930s, railcars primarily replaced unprofitable provincial carriage trains, and some mixed services in regions such as the West Coast and Taranaki Region.
Mixed trains dominated the South Island's more extensive branch-line network, but as private car ownership increased in the 1930s, passenger traffic decreased, closing many rural train routes. However, some mixed services lasted into the 1960s in isolated regions with poor roads. In the North Island, the last mixed trains operated into the 1970s, where services on the North Auckland Line ran until 1976.
An updated type of mixed train existed in the South Island for a few years during the 1990s, when a few wagons of express containerised freight were attached to the Coastal Pacific Picton–Christchurch express. Unlike prior era mixed trains, with their slow en route shunting, this time-sensitive freight travelled swiftly.
The last mixed train on the Canadian Pacific Railway was the Midland's Windsor–Truro, Nova Scotia mixed train, which operated until 1979. By 1990, mixed trains existed on only four routes in Canada, namely the Via Rail (formerly Canadian National Railway) Wabowden–Churchill (ceased 2002) and The Pas–Lynn Lake, the Ontario Northland Cochrane–Moosonee, and the Quebec North Shore and Labrador's Sept-Îles–Labrador City/Schefferville.
Currently, the Keewatin Railway's The Pas–Pukatawagan leases passenger cars from Via Rail. Tshiuetin Rail Transportation operates in northern Quebec. These operations are the two surviving mixed trains in North America.
In 1864, the Ffestiniog Railway introduced mixed trains, with passenger coaches in the middle for the ascent. Down trains were run in up to four separate (uncoupled) portions: loaded slate wagons, goods wagons, passenger carriages and the locomotive running light. This practice changed to a whole descending train, headed by the locomotive, for safety reasons.
Opened in 1866, the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway operated mixed trains during its early years. On market days when space was at a premium, passengers sat on coal in the tender and crowded onto the footplate. The Regulation Act of 1889 generally prohibited traditional mixed trains because the absence of continuous braking apparatus on wagons preceding the coaches jeopardized passenger safety. However, the Board of Trade exercised latitude in enforcing this rule, and some mixed trains ran until the end of the steam era.
Goods wagons/vans requiring speedy delivery could be attached to the end of passenger trains. This included horse boxes, cattle wagons, parcels vans, newspaper vans, fish vans, milk tanks and churn vans.
Possibly one of the last scheduled mixed services in the United Kingdom is the Hythe Pier, Railway and Ferry in Hampshire. This service is the oldest continually running pier train in the world (since 1922) and regularly carries diesel fuel to the pier head for the ferry.
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