LMR, The Diligence Passenger Carriage

[What About The Bee]

On Saturday, 9 August 1828, the Newcastle Courant describes a passenger carriage that it firmly states belongs to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.  

This carriage offers a unique view in what was to come, as this was two YEARS before the LMR was to open!  Moreover, although the carriage did run, it was not regular service, nor was it on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.  But it was pulled by a defacto LMR locomotive.  Confused?

The Bolton and Leigh Railway (B&LR)

The locomotive used on opening day was the Lancashire Witch.  

The Lancashire Witch was of Robert Stephenson construction, ordered by the LMR in Jan 1828. The LMR presented the order to the B&LR. This article is not about the Lancashire Witch, yet the oddity of an LMR locomotive pulling an LMR carriage years before the LMR opened was an oddity I could not resist!

The consist had 7 waggons attached and at the very end "was a ponderous vehicle, a coach belonging to the Liverpool and Manchester Company, built on the French diligence system."

What is a French Diligence?

We have literally dozens of horse drawn stage coach images from advertisements, showing inside and outside seating. Yet the stage coach was a tiny affair. In general, the term outside seating seems to refer to seats exposed to the elements, not necessarily on the roof.  

Some coaches even were on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. 

The French diligence system essentially ganged multiple stage coach bodies into one.  Here is an image of a French Diligence, one so labeled in the period.

This should look familiar to LMR enthusiasts, as it is similar to the LMR 1st class glass carriages.

The Newcastle Courant goes on to say that it was designed for 16 inside passengers and 4 outside passengers; but that on opening day, there were at least a dozen [additional?] on the roof.  

This passage in the Newcastle Courant confused me.  We know that carriage compartments were either 4 or 6 inside, each, so how did the Diligence design for 16?  Further, where are the 4 outside seats?

Francis Whishaw, Railways of Great Britain and Ireland, details the seating.  Instead of divided bench seating, there were no dividers, it was 4 abreast.  Two benches per compartment, two compartments.  16 inside seats.  The front coupe or chaise was open, unlike the illustration above.  Single bench facing forward, 4 abreast.  4 outside seats.

Regular passenger service on the L&BR did not begin until 1831, so this LMR carriage only saw brief service.  Yet it is one of the first LMR passenger carriages, designed from the start as a passenger carriage, not a waggon adapted to purpose.
 

Bee

[LTSR_NSE]

That arrangement with seating for 16 inside may also be significant for a different early carriage…

Don’t some of the various written descriptions for the S&DR ‘Experiment’ carriage describe benches for carrying 16/18 inside?

Looking at that image of the ‘French Diligence’ it also appears somewhat similar to the first-hand sketches of ‘Experiment’.  You could also imagine it being described as a coach-shed hybrid - perhaps the later artists were attempting to draw from a poorly worded written description of a carriage of that style?

[What About The Bee]

Hi LT&SR_NSE 

The S&DR Experiment was an "Omnibus" style, where all of the passengers were facing in, in two long rows, towards each other.  The passengers rode sideways.  

In the Diligence system, the passengers either faced the direction of travel or rode facing backwards.

I encountered one tongue-in-cheek article about an Omnibus, which stated that passengers should no longer complain about who rode facing backwards, since in the Omnibus system, everyone rode sideways.  Included was a jibe that the British public should appreciate the stylishness, since it was a French invention.

There were many horsedrawn omnibus wagons in London, so the style is well documented.

Bee

 

[What About The Bee]