Compartment Coaches on Heritage Lines

[Paul Hitchcock]

Not if only one "bubble" use each compartment, which is what some people expect -- and to be fair, on a heritage railway (as opposed to a regular transport service) I'm not sure this is unreasonable.

Huh! I did say Covid considerations apart.

 

[Spartacus]

Huh! I did say Covid considerations apart.

Even in the years before Covid I’ve noticed increasing numbers who don’t want to use a compartment if there’s already another party in there, no matter how small, and it seems to be not really affected by wether there’s a corridor or not. I suppose it’s a natural consequence of more people not being used to the sometimes over familiarity of travelling in compartment stock on the main line.

 

[Paul Hitchcock]

Even in the years before Covid I’ve noticed increasing numbers who don’t want to use a compartment if there’s already another party in there, no matter how small, and it seems to be not really affected by wether there’s a corridor or not. I suppose it’s a natural consequence of more people not being used to the sometimes over familiarity of travelling in compartment stock on the main line.

Compartment stock has pros and cons mainly from ill behaved children. Dreadful if they are in your compartment but excellent if they are in another.

 

[WesternLancer]

I used to visit Britain rarely as a tourist from overseas before the pandemic, and at that time I visited the Great Central Railway (GCR) in Loughborough twice. I was really fascinated by the GCR general atmosphere and its steam locomotives/other old rolling stock. Needless to say, during those 2 visits, I took the GCR trains from Loughborough Central to Leicester North and back, alighting at the intermediate stations and exploring them, many times.

One particular thing that I really liked about the GCR was that I travelled in (a) corridor compartment coaches and (b) non-corridor compartment coaches. Since I am not familiar with the proper British railway terminology, I should probably give some explanation. (a) When I'm saying 'a corridor compartment coach', I mean that its layout is a number of compartments (with seats) linked by a side corridor. As far as I understand, one of its typical examples is BR Mk 1 SK. (b) When I'm saying 'a non-corridor compartment coach', I mean that it is essentially a number of compartments (with seats) without a side corridor (i.e., a compartment occupies the entire coach width), and each compartment has its own exit door to the platform. I guess it should be BR Mk1 Suburban but I'm not sure. I really like these coaches because they remind me some scenes from the iconic Poirot and Miss Marple TV series starring David Suchet and Joan Hickson, respectively.

When the international travel becomes as usual as it used to be, I'd like to visit some other heritage railways in Britain. Could someone please tell me what heritage railways allow to travel in corridor/non-corridor compartment coaches? Currently I'm planning my future trips and choosing between (but not limited to) the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway, the Bluebell Railway, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. I checked the websites of these railways, and it seems that all of them have such coaches. However, it is not clear how often these coaches are used. I guess it is very likely that open coaches are used, on average, more often on some of these heritage lines but I'd like, if possible, to travel in a compartment coach (if possible).

It would also be very nice if I and one or two my friends could book an entire compartment. Could someone please tell me if it is possible anywhere on heritage railways? It seems that it is more or less common these days because of the COVID-19 and social distancing measures but was it possible in the pre-COVID era?

Bluebell Railway is especially good in that their carriages are almost all restored to a very high standard indeed and they have a good sized fleet of older ones too (eg pre 1955 built) in regular service. Pay a 1st class supplement and you would be almost gauranteed a compartment on every train, and often not a full one. As excellent as the GCR is, not all of their coaching stock is up to the standard achieved by the Bluebell in my view. Tho I go to both regularly and would not hesitate to recommend the GCR to anyone, I would like to add.

But all of those lines you quote are in the top notch tier of quality preserved railways with good coaching stock (I'd also add Severn Valley Railway to your list). I very much agree with other replies in this thread of course.

 

[Ralph Ayres]

Compartment stock has pros and cons mainly from ill behaved children. Dreadful if they are in your compartment but excellent if they are in another.

Had that the other week at the SVR. Went into a compartment occupied by just one adult, settled down only to be joined by the rest of the family including 2 kids bouncing off the walls.

 

[StephenHunter]

Compartment stock has pros and cons mainly from ill behaved children. Dreadful if they are in your compartment but excellent if they are in another.

Less problems with drunken adults these days though.

 

[bramling]

Had that the other week at the SVR. Went into a compartment occupied by just one adult, settled down only to be joined by the rest of the family including 2 kids bouncing off the walls.

One of the (few) pleasantries about the last two years has been the fact that many places have been one bubble per compartment, either officially or simply through people being reluctant to mix.

On heritage railways where people are paying quite large sums of money for an "experience", not an A to B journey, this isn't a bad thing at all IMO.