Coach (rail)
Encyclopedia : C : CO : COA : Coach (rail)
A railway coach — also known, especially in the UK, as a railway carriage — is a passenger car designed for the conveyance of passengers by rail (the first such vehicles were, in fact, often road coaches mounted on frames equipped with railway wheels). A railway coach can be self-propelled (such as the Budd Rail Diesel Car, in which case it is known as a railcar), form part of a multiple unit of self-propelled vehicles, or be pulled or pushed by one or more locomotives either singly or together with other railroad cars.
The car's interior is filled with row upon row of seats, generally all arranged facing toward one end of the car, though sometimes they face each other, and some railway lines using this layout have the car divided into separated compartments, with a corridor on one side. The seats are often so close together that there is not much room for anything more than a passenger or two in them. Carry-on baggage is stowed on a shelf above the passenger seating area. Coaches are sometimes referred to as "chair cars." The seats in most coaches until the middle of the 20th century, were usually bench seats; the backs of these seats could be adjusted, often with one hand, to face in either direction so the car would not have to be turned for a return trip. The conductor would simply walk down the aisle in the car, reversing the seat backs to prepare for the return trip.
Santa Fe Pendulum-suspension car #1100
In 1938, Pullman built for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway an experimental pendulum-suspension "chair" car which saw service on the San Diegan passenger train, among others. Mounted on high springs, the car was to tilt inwards of curves to counterbalance the cant deficiency with the induced centrifugal force. However, as it relied on purely passive components, it was not entirely successful, and the lack of damping produced a sea-sickness inducing rolling motion that insured that the experiment would not be repeated.See also
External links
- [Nevada Central Railway Coach No. 3 Silver State] — photographs and short history of a "shorty" Coach built in 1881.
| Rail transport passenger equipment | |
| Head-end equipment | Baggage · Express reefer · Horse car · RPO · TPO |
| Passenger-carrying equipment | Coach · Couchette · Diner · Dome · Lounge · Observation · Sleeper / Pullman |
| Miscellaneous equipment | Combine · Troop kitchen / Troop sleeper |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.