Third open (Themiclesian railway)
| Third Open | |
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 Third Open coach of National Rail in 1925 |
Third Open (廷叁, līng-s.rūm) was a type of railway carriage used by various operators on Themiclesian railways. It was introduced en masse by Northwestern Railway in 1878 to provide lavatories to long-distance trains, not possible on conventional third-class compartment coaches.
Layout
All Third Open coaches after the 19th century were characterized by a 3+2 seating layout, with a corridor dividing the carriage lengthwise, asymmetrically. In early coaches, two adjacent rows of seats typically face each other, a feature inherited from compartment coaches; in 1893, reversible seats were introduced by some operators, and by the 1950s they were replaced by revolving seats in National Rail's Series 5 coaches. In comparison, contemporary third-class compartment carriages sat six abreast. Northwestern recuperated the lost seating capacity by extending its coaches from the ordinary 60′ to 75′, which was necessary in part to create space for lavatories.
In the most common layout, there were bathrooms on both ends of the coach, typically one for each sex, though some railways provided only one bathroom for all passengers. Platforms were added in most cases to both ends of the coach to enable a guard to move between coaches (rather than walk on roofs or running boards). Whereas first- and second-class passengers gained access to dining cars in the 1880s and benefited from enclosed gangways, third-class passengers did not enjoy dining facilities on trains until 1895, and thus enclosed gangways did not appear on third-class coaches until that time.
In the 1900s through 1950s, Third Open was the dominant layout in long-distance passenger stock and steadily gained ground in short-distance stock as well. In the wake of a revelation that third-class coaches were so cramped that men's and women's knees touched, a law was passed in 1871 requiring that no railway compartment with passengers facing each other be narrower than 4 ft 8 in; this figure remained a baseline in coach design with mandatory roofs, lighting, and ventilation. 4 ft 8 in was retained as the minimum in the railway business even though there were doubts whether seating bays in open carriages constituted "compartments" in the sense of that legislation. When reversible and then revolving seats were introduced, National Rail fixed the third-class seat pitch at 2 ft 4 in. in 1910, or precisely half the size of a compartment shared by two rows of passengers.
Upholstery saw gradual improvement as older second-class coaches were retrofitted or redesignated as third-class coaches, a practice common on several railways prior to nationalization, though legislation mandating basic safety and comfort through the late 19th and early 20th centuries is also credited for the same. Third-class coaches initially had bare wooden seats as opposed to padded seats in the more expensive classes, but Northwestern became the first to offer upholstered third-class seats in 1905. Those coaches were formerly second-class coaches with armrests removed, thus accommodating five abreast rather than three. Other railways rapidly followed this trend with ageing second-class coaches retired off the branch lines.
History
The first set of Third Open coaches were employed in by Northwestern in its express services from Kien-k'ang to Ngrak. This 516-mile journey required 11 hours on a train that called at only two stations, and passengers frequently pulled on the emergency chords for unscheduled stops to relieve themselves. This practice was troublesome but not yet dangerous in contemporary practice, as scheduling was then not very tight. First-class passengers in drawing room cars could access a lavatory, as the coach was not compartmentalized. For this reason, the open-style layout was implemented on coaches all classes intended for long-distance travel on the Northwestern. The company heavily advertised the new convenience and the "unrestricted atmosphere" formerly part of the first-class ticket, which was well-received by travellers.
Adoption of the open plan on third-class varied by the operator and was not complete until the 1910s.