End doors and through gangways

[Haydn1971]

Something struck me the other day whilst stood in the vestibule of my usual EMT 158 coming into Dore... The doors through to the next carriage were open and I could see through to the open door at the far end. Got me thinking, with enough reinforcement around the ends, could a 26m bi-mode type unit be developed with underfloor power like on the 800's, but with through gangways like on the 700's, with double doors from a commuter train at the end of each 26m cartage, a large standing area with tip up seats, then the remainder of the carriage be configured for longer distance passengers with a good mix of airline and facing seats. Essentially giving over the end 15% to standing space and flip seats, leaving the middle 70% for seating - you could even mix in some Pacer style toilet deployment taking the space of a doorway leaving three around a through gangway.

Thoughts ?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I can see no technical reason why not, though the disadvantage of 26m vehicles is the loss of width which means for instance 3+2 seating is not possible.

 

[Haydn1971]

2+3 seating would make the gangways a tad tight... 20m units would probably give about 12m of mid space assuming nearly 4m at the ends for a 1.5m door, 2m end, 0.5m gangway connector and some spacing

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I imagine it would be tricky fitting double doors into the end of a vehicle as there's nowhere for the door to go when it opens on the side nearest the couplers. Couple that with a full width corridor connection and you end up with two nice wide doorways pretty much next to each other...

 

[Haydn1971]

I imagine it would be tricky fitting double doors into the end of a vehicle as there's nowhere for the door to go when it opens on the side nearest the couplers.

As above, assuming 1.5m wide double door arrangement, with 2m for the coupler half (0.75m) of the door to slip into, plus some space for the carriage end structure. Giving a shared space about 8m long at each end of a central space that's 12m long in a 20m carriage, or 18m long in a 26m carriage. Providing something that gives the internal ambience of an end door unit, with the loading ability approaching that of a mid-door unit.

Couple that with a full width corridor connection and you end up with two nice wide doorways pretty much next to each other...

Well that's the idea, the concept would provide a pair of double doors about 4.5-5m apart to service the through gangway area.

The key argument at the moment against DMU's is fitting all the gear into the under carriage area, the Class 800 does this by raising the floor mid carriage, which negates the fitting of mid-doors like on a Class 185.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

But surely the advantage of the 185 setup is that the wide double doors allow people to alight from the saloons at either side, and then allow people to board and turn either way. If there's only 4.5m between either door each side of the full-width connection (with presumably only tip-up or longitudinal seats in between) then you've lost the advantage of the wider doors?

Apologies if I've misunderstood the concept you're trying to promote here, of course.