General view down the corridor.
Looking into the compartment through the glass screen side and sliding door.
Looking inside the compartment through the open door.
These images come from a MK1 carriage which is used on railtours / private charter leisure based services. Only these two views were taken, with the imtention of complementing (rather than duplicating) existing images as seen on other trains.
As previously stated, it was usual for compartments to feature passenger controlled heating controls.
Especially in first class compartments often included reading lights which the passengers could use if they wished. Also note the bench type seating and (full) luggage rack.
These images come from refurbished MK1 based trains which used to operate on medium distance services in southern England.
The side corridor walkway.
First class, with 3 aside seating, fold-up armrests and individual reading lamps.
Standard class with no armrests and 4 aside bench type seating.
Although this page is about compartments it may be of interest to briefly look at the alternative - which means seating in an 'open' carriage. The next two images come from the same trains as the compartment images seen above.
Individual seating in a refurbished open MK1 based carriage. The seats are arranged in bays around large picture windows where the lower sill is low enough for a seated child to see out of the window.
Note the "mini" tables under the windows which are ideal for a cup of coffee (from the refreshment trolley, as regrettably in the latter years these trains no longer had proper buffet carriages), but not much else.
Compartments on trains designed for short distance and suburban commutter passengers often extended across the full width of the trains with a single hand operated doorway on each side, so that passengers were unable to walk about the train. The advantage of this was that without the walkway it was possible to achieve the highest seating capacity. Conversely there was usually little space for standing passengers whilst 'personal wheeled transports' such as wheelchairs, children in prambs / pushchairs etc., had to travel in the area reserved for luggage - which in winter would not be heated.
In addition to not being able to walk about the train (perhaps to access the toilet) another disadvantage of this seating configuration related to concerns of personal safety. Even in the 1950's British Railways was building trains with this seating configuration, and in the 1980's it adopted a policy of painting a red stripe over any passenger doorways which led to such compartments.
I am yet to find any photographs showing the outside of these trains (with or without the red stripe) but this image taken inside a compartment on what was probably a Class 307 train at London Liverpool Street station on an outer-suburban working to Southend Victoria may be of interest.
Internal illumination was courtesy of two ceiling-mounted filament light bulbs located approximately a third of the way in from each door. Sometimes only one worked, and I have very happy memories of the few times when both lights had failed and I was alone in a compartment on a balmy late summer's eve shortly after sunset with both windows open wide as the train flew through London's suburbs... zooming through the several intermediate stations we were not meant to call at. Modern trains may be safer, and may even have air-conditioning, but at night the glare from the lights causes reflections on the windows which interfere with the view.
Sometimes British Railways also built trains where some carriages featured what could be seen as 'semi-compartments' where there was a central walkway serving perhaps half a dozen seating bays. This example comes from what is believed to be a Class 115 diesel train which operated out of London Marylebone station. Note the 2 + 3 bench type seating in bays with the central walkway and 6 abreast seating at the internal partitions.
The green carriages seen were known as 100 seater carriages. They were so named because they have 10 compartments per carriage, each of which can seat 10 passengers (five a side). They were built by the former Southern Railway and were for passengers travelling third class. The 'golden honey' coloured carriage which has wooden sides that were varnished instead of painted are the Metropolitan Railway's (MR) 'Ashby' carriages. They are also seen below.
Looking inside the functional but rather spartan compartment. Note the single full-width bench type seating and the other doorway on the far side of the carriage.
Until the early 1960's several fleets of slam door compartment trains such as these were operated on Londons' (now truncated) Metropolitan Line between London and Aylesbury, changing between steam and electric locomotives during station stops at either Harrow-On-The-Hill or (after 1925) Rickmansworth stations. Even in 1931 the MR was building new slam door compartment trains, although by then they featured steel sides (which were painted maroon) and were of the self-propelled 'electric multiple unit' type.
The door tops were rounded to reduce the likelihood of damage if a door was left open and whilst swinging 'to & fro' hit a tunnel wall on the subterranean section of track south of Finchley Road station.
Looking inside the compartment.
An offside view showing the entire carriage.
These views show the Metropolitan Railway's (MR) 'Ashby' carriages which date from 1898, this being a time when the MR was just one of the many privately owned British railway companies. These (just about) survived into the present-day era and having been restored now carry passengers on the Bluebell Railway which has a website at http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/ (link opens in a new window).
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