Compartment coach

A compartment coach is a railway passenger coach (US: passenger car) divided into separate areas or compartments, with no means of moving between compartments.

Originally compartment coaches were passenger coaches with several separate compartments in the same coach body, each compartment having its own doors on the side of the coach to enable passengers to board and alight. The compartment coach was developed at the very beginning of the railway era in England simply by placing a post coach body on a railway undercarriage. Compartment coaches were used across almost the whole of Europe and were built right up to the 1930s. On the European continent they were sometimes referred to as English coaches or coaches built to the English system.

The compartment coach should not be confused with the classic express train coach of the first part of the twentieth century; the corridor coach which also has separate compartments and is still known as a compartment coach in other languages (e.g. German: Abteilwagen). A corridor coach has covered gangways, side entrances and partitioned compartments with a corridor down one side.

The first compartment coaches in the 19th century comprised several cabins on one undercarriage, similar to the post coaches. Compartment coaches with doors for each compartment, without any connexion between compartments, were built up to the end of the 20th century. The disadvantages of this design were that passengers could not use the toilet or visit the dining car and that train staff had to climb along the outside of the coach on running boards in order to check tickets. Countless four-, six- and eight-wheeled vehicles of this type were used in Germany and especially by the Prussian state railways.

Until about 1880, four-wheeled compartment coaches were typical. After the end of the wave of nationalisations the Prussian state railways, around 1895, acquired the quieter-running six-wheelers. For this, so-called norms were established for four-, six- and, later, eight-wheeled classes of coach. For the six-wheelers, both fixed axle and sliding axle designs were envisaged. Those coaches designed specifically for suburban traffic (Berlin, Hamburg) had no toilets. On the other coaches, a gangway was specified in order to keep the number of toilets to a minimum for economic reasons. Numerous coaches had therefore to be converted. After the end of the 19th century, fourth class compartment coaches were also procured.

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Wikipedia