3-009-068 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: Belgian first-class railway-carriage, with smoking-saloon attached - from a photograph by the London Stereoscopic Company, 1862. A '...composite carriage, consisting of two first-class compartments placed at each end, with a covered division in the centre, but open at the sides. The entrances of the saloons are from the open division in the middle; an open railing is placed on each side of the centre portion, and the principal entrance to the carriage is in it. At the low velocity that most trains travel on the Continent we can easily imagine this arrangement to be very pleasant in fine weather, the ladies chatting together in the saloons, the gentlemen smoking outside; but in bad weather the open-sided compartment would be unoccupied, and the space consequently wasted, as only as many first-class passengers would then travel by this carriage as could find seats in the two saloons. We are therefore inclined to think that such a carriage as this would only be of use in exceptional cases, and that it is not in any way adapted to the English system'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.