(In fact I just saw the setting up and the last couple of hours…)
Back in 2013 I flew into and out of London Heathrow and stayed overnight adjacent to London Paddington station. I visited a friend in Exeter in Devon, then headed directly north to York avoiding London. I stopped off in London on my way back to Exeter, and spent my last night in the Paddington area.
I’ve never been to Europe, but one interesting thing I’ve always noted with trains in movies, was that each compartment had it’s own door to board or exit the train. A good idea from the passenger point of view, but seems like an operational nightmare for a variety of reasons.
I believe that only Britain had that door-at-every-compartment arrangement – convenient for minimal station dwell times! Trains on the Continent generally only had doors at vestibules fore and aft.
My understanding is that Britain has a tighter loading gauge than Continental Europe. This would seem to be a good incentive to eliminate the side corridor to give more usable space.
I recall the “slam-door” non-corridor coaches. I think they were last used in suburban services, including mus. Are any still in operation outside museum and heritage operations?
British Railways at least until the Beeching Plan of 1963 operated non corridor coaches all over the country. They were both in suburban and branch line service. The typical consist was often a tank locomotive and two coaches. They were called all stations and halts locals. Believe it or not, even these coaches had first class compartments. It was very rare to have a train with only second class coaches. These non corridor coaches disappeared when steam locomotives did. Britain built DMU’s in the beginning in the late 1950’s; all of them had first class compartments. Some designed for suburban service carried only one first class compartment for the entire trainset.
Service between Devon, Bristol, and the Noth of England has always been an intregal part of British rail service. These trains from Bristol to Yorkshire were operated by the Midland Railway, who considered passenger comfort important, and later the LMS before nationalization. In the 1970’s HST trainsets began operating on this route via Birmingham New Street. The HST trainsets were as fine as any train BR operated. Britain now calls second class standard class. Inter City service both before and after privatization operate at a higher standard than does regular train service.
Regarding air conditioning, we have to be sure we’re talking about the same thing. Quite a few heavyweight cars were built with, or converted to, ice-cooled air conditioning during the 1920’s. Ice bunkers were filed by hatches at the ends of the car roofs, and electric fans circulated the air through the car.
What we today think of as air conditioning (electrical, not ice) was first developed for homes around 1900 (but only used in theaters, some large public buildings, or homes of rich folks for many decades thereafter) and was adapted for railroad use in the 1930’s.
Heavyweight cars with clerestory roofs normally had ductwork added to the roof, so that one side of the clerestory might be ‘filled in’ and look different than the other side.
Another question, did the old heavy weights that were still around in the 1960’s, always have sealed windows, or were they originally built before air conditioning with openable windows?
B&O placed their first air conditioned car, a diner, in service in 1930, and their first all air conditioned train in 1931. Pullman Co first experimented with air conditioning in their sleeping cars in the 1927-'29 time frame. AA
If I’m not mistaken, Southern Pacific started experimenting quite early with air conditioning, in order to equip it’s passenger fleet with this “cool” feature. I can’t provide the dates, stand corrected, and request help from the Peanut Gallery. Like Howdy Doody, I have a wooden head, only mine was attacked by an angry army of termites.
OK, well I stand corrected. Should have said 1930’s.
BTW apparently those non-corridor “slam door” English passenger cars were a great boon to robbers. A bad guy could get into the same section as a couple of wealthy folks at one station, hold them up, and take off with the loot as the train pulled into the next station a few miles down the line.
Are you familiar with the Agatha Christie story “The 4.50 from Paddington”?
A quick summary:
Our female detective heroine boards the train in the title, an express. Her train overtakes another stopping train made up of compartment cars. A closed blind flies up revealing the face of a woman being strangled by an out of sight figure.
The lady detective reports this to the train guard and the police but no body is found. She investigates herself, walking along the track disguised as a male track worker, finds a likely location, and gets employed as a servant in the house adjacent to the track where she finds the body.
There was a B&W movie starring Margaret Rutherford, and a later TV version in colour.
1920’s? Yes, Pullman did have some experimental ice air-condiitoining systems in sleeping cars 1927-on. 1929 started a more general application. I think in 1929 there may have been advertizements.
Perhaps the first attempts at air conditioning were done by the Santa Fe for diners - using ice. Also seem to recall that the PV built for the “Millionaire Brakeman” had one of the very first A/C’s applied to a railroad car.
On a somewhat related subject, the Northern Ohio Traction had some electrically powered mechanical reefers in 1926.
There’s only one Miss Marple: Margaret Rutherford! The MGM produced B&W motion picture is a classic and can be seen over and over again! British Railways sure put on one good steam show! I got to see the Flying Scotsman in Dallas on it’s US tour. A beautiful machine!
I just returned from a trip Syracuse, NY/Lamy, NM and on the home leg aboard the Lake Shore Limited, had a conversation with the sleeper attendant who had worked for many years on Pullman cars both in the US and in Mexico. He described for me the elaborate process of making up section berths including installing cooling fans which were quite a chore given his description of the work involved. Passenger comfort came at quite a price in terms of labor by staff in those days.
Donald J. Cockroach is fast bringing back “Luxury, Comfort, and Class Distinction” not only to the USA but to the entire planet in the process. Welcome to the New World Order according to Trump!