I see that there is another now-closed thread on this: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/why-did-it-take-br-so-long-to-adopt-sliding-doors.115789/
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Why were slam door trains still built so late on?
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61653 HTAFC
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Something similar was the usual mode of operation at (the old) Liverpool Central low-level, I believe.
I think that it's one of those things that looks surprising now but everyone seemed able to handle then. The same for buses, which all once had the open rear platform which people used to get on and off when moving. I never once saw an accident happen. I guess it did occasionally, but not the normal experience at all. It was only those confident of how to do it who did it.
Notably in the 1991 Cannon Street buffer stop collision (2 fatalities and multiple injuries) some people had done this and stepped down onto the platform before the train hit the buffers, so in that case it was the reverse, those who did this got away with it, those still inside the train were the ones who suffered.
edwin_m
Veteran Member
In those days people might accept a bruise or the occasional broken limb from accidents on buses and trains. These days it's quite likely they would sue. Also in the past the railway authorities and Inspectorate were rightly concerned about "train accidents" but they also treated lesser incidents such as those with doors as "one of those things" even though in total they probably accounted for more casualties. Another factor might be that there are more elderly, infirm and disabled travelling around independently these days, who have no problem pressing a button but might struggle with a heavy slam door. I'm not commenting on whether any of these changes is a good thing, but it's clear that they have happened and there is no winding the clock back.
nlogax
Established Member
Thinking back to being a teenager this seemed to be a very normal thing at the time.
Scroll to 2:36 onwards for a standard morning at Waterloo.
This still happens on the Paris Metro and no one ever died or got injured because of that.
Thanks for that!
See also the shunter coming to uncouple the loco at 3:45
How do you know? I bet they have.
Speaking from personal experience, I very nearly came a cropper opening an HST door a bit early at Reading once. I was certainly injured, but it was entirely my fault!
edwin_m
Veteran Member
With a sliding door on the Paris Metro that can be opened while the train is still doing a few km/h, the risk is falling onto the platform or hitting someone on the platform, both at that low speed. Without central locking a slam door could be opened at any speed, and might do a lot more damage to someone on the platform or to the person opening it.
I know because of internal knowledge and it would make the news.
eastwestdivide
Established Member
Southern Region, around 1980-odd, I remember posters strongly warning people not to open the slam doors before the train had stopped, with I think staged photos showing someone on the platform about to get swiped by an open door.
... found a similar example on an auction site at https://gnrauctions.co.uk/wpcontent-uploads-2018-09-alpha2018-pdf-docx-alpha2018-pdf/ (no.59 on the list)
"A moment's impatience, a lifetime of remorse - Please don't open the carriage door until the train has stopped. Please don't stand close to the platform edge"
... found a similar example on an auction site at https://gnrauctions.co.uk/wpcontent-uploads-2018-09-alpha2018-pdf-docx-alpha2018-pdf/ (no.59 on the list)
"A moment's impatience, a lifetime of remorse - Please don't open the carriage door until the train has stopped. Please don't stand close to the platform edge"
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
In my younger rebellious days, I'd occasionally do this off 308s in Yorkshire but only at the last moment right before the train stopped... there were always a few who (unlike me) were old enough to know better but still did it.
As someone who grew up in that era, I'm always struck by how well dressed and respectable everyone looks (even the leisure travellers). Not a scruffy git like myself to be seen !
Lovely CIG's and VEP's. Them were the days
As a teenager in the 60s it was almost a point of honour to get off a bus or train before it had stopped moving.
Struner
Member
That’s the spirit
Dr_Paul
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That's right, it was 'the done thing' at Waterloo, to where I used to travel, and no doubt elsewhere. Indeed, if you didn't do it, you were almost seen as being anti-social by fellow travellers, because it held them up. As the old BR poster used to say, albeit in respect of boarding, 'seconds count'.
When travelling on 4-SUBS and similar stock, with a door for every compartment or bay, it was quite a skill you had to develop of standing up and slightly opening the door and holding on to it, then letting it open fully and then jumping off onto the platform when the train is slow enough to keep your feet when landing on the platform, whilst avoiding bumping into other people who have already doing the same ahead of you, and getting away from the platform edge so that succeeding doors and people didn't bump into you from behind.
Like the related skill of jumping on and off a moving bus' platform, something most if not all Londoners quickly developed at an early age, this skill has become redundant. On preserved lines where we still have the pleasure of opening the doors ourselves, I am careful to wait until the train has stopped before opening the door.
I would agree, and (like when climbing trees) when misjudging it initially or occasionally might have resulted in a few grazes, you soon learnt from your experience!That’s the spirit
I'm sure that it allowed us to learn what "risk" was really about, and to have a more adventurous outlook than seems to be acceptable to people who haven't had that freedom more recently.
That fun doesn't mean you became more negligent or an irresponsible risk-taker in later life though...
Struner
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Here I am, well into my 70s, having survived a few silly winter climbs & on a lower level some silly sails as well... 
Tom B
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It is an everyday occurrence on LUL I believe, primarily at termini with only two platforms (and often when engineering works lead to the service reversing in a single platform).
I think it really comes into its own where there is just one platform at a terminus with a track either side...
43096
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Misty-eyed enthusiast nonsense. Vile trains that were outdated when built. Give me a Desiro, Electrostar or Juniper any day.Lovely CIG's and VEP's. Them were the days
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I friend of mine told me that he pulled the communication cord between Bristol Parkway and Cheltenham one night as he came across a door on a mk2f that was wide open while the train was doing 90+ mph. As the train shuddered to a halt the door slammed shut and the guard thought he’d been messing around until on closer inspection of the door they found bits of twigs and leaves wedged in the inside of the window.
What was to stop it (before the days of centralised locking?)
Depends whether the door opens in the direction of travel or not. If a door was on the latch, the force of the displaced air down the side of the train was more than enough to open the door, more so as speed picked up.
Dr_Paul
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From what I remember of such stock, it would be possible to open the door at any point, whatever the speed, if one was daft enough to do so. I don't think that a door would be accidentally opened, as it required a positive move by a person, either by pushing the internal latch sideways, which had quite a strong spring holding it, or by dropping the window and turning the external handle. It did happen sometimes, I recall seeing the remains of a door lying in the six-foot where someone had opened it a good half-mile outside Clapham Junction on the main line into Waterloo and it had hit a bridge column. Seeing where it was, I reckon that it had been on an up fast service.
Yes it happened all the time. It was one of the single biggest risks to passengers on the rail system. People fell out of trains, at speed, quite regularly (older readers may remember the ‘Tamworth Triangle’)
Introducing central door locking and (separately) TPWS significantly improved safety on the railway.
randyrippley
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doors that were on the latch and shook loose
latches that failed
vibration causing coach bodies to flex and twist, with the door forced out of position
people opening doors at a platform when held at a signal rather than a scheduled stop
people mistaking their stop and trying to exit too late as the train is leaving the platform
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