A compartment coach is a railway passenger coach (US: passenger car) divided into separate areas or compartments, with no means of moving between each compartment.

English origins

Originally compartment coaches were passenger coaches with several, separate compartments in the same coach body, each compartment having its own doors on the side of the coach to enable passengers to board and alight. The compartment coach was developed at the very beginning of the railway era in England simply by placing a post coach body on a railway undercarriage. Compartment coaches were used across almost the whole of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and were built right up to the 1930s. On the continent they were sometimes referred to as English coaches or coaches built to the English system.

American corridor coach

The compartment coach should not be confused with the classic express train

Express train

Express trains are a form of rail service. Express trains make only a small number of stops, instead of stopping at every single station...

 coach of the first part of the twentieth century; the corridor coach

Corridor coach

A corridor coach is a type of railway passenger coach divided into compartments and having a corridor down one side of the coach to allow free movement along the train and between compartments....

 which also has separate compartments and is still known as a compartment coach in other languages (e.g. German: Abteilwagen). A corridor coach has covered gangways, side entrances and partitioned compartments with a corridor down one side.

Early compartment coaches

The first compartment coaches in the 19th century comprised several cabins on one undercarriage, similar to the post coaches. Compartment coaches with doors for each compartment, without any connexion between compartments, were built up to the end of the 20th century. The disadvantages of this design were that passengers could not use the toilet or visit the dining car

Dining car

A dining car or restaurant carriage , also diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant....

 and that train staff had to climb along the outside of the coach on running boards in order to check tickets. Countless four-, six- and eight-wheeled vehicles of this type were used in Germany and especially by the Prussian state railways

Prussian state railways

The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...

.

Development in Prussia

Until about 1880, four-wheeled compartment coaches were typical. After the end of the wave of nationalisations the Prussian state railways, around 1895, acquired the quieter-running six-wheelers. For this, so-called norms were established for four-, six- and, later, eight-wheeled classes of coach. For the six-wheelers, both fixed axle and sliding axle designs were envisaged. Those coaches designed specifically for suburban traffic (Berlin, Hamburg) had no toilets. On the other coaches, a gangway was specified in order to keep the number of toilets to a minimum for economic reasons. Numerous coaches had therefore to be converted. After the turn of the century, fourth class compartment coaches were also procured.

Four- and six-wheeled compartment coaches were initially used in all train categories

Train categories in Europe

Railway companies in Europe assign their trains to different categories or train types depending on their role. Passenger trains may be broadly split into long-distance and local trains; the latter having average journey times of under an hour and a range of less than 50 kilometres. Goods trains...

 on main lines. With the advent of the D-Zug express coaches in 1892, compartment coaches were deployed in passenger trains on main lines

Main line (railway)

The Mainline or Main line of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings and spurs are connected....

 and in built-up areas. Here, it became abundantly clear, that in addition a faster turn round of passengers, that access to station platforms on main lines could only be permitted if passengers had valid tickets and that trains could not be boarded until shortly before their departure. So ticket checking by the guard became a function of station staff. By contrast, through coaches were common on branch lines, because there were often no platform barriers on branch line stations and so tickets had to be checked in the train itself.

From 1895, especially in Prussia

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

 and Saxony

Kingdom of Saxony

The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...

 (but also to a lesser extent in Baden

Baden

Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....

, Bavaria

Kingdom of Bavaria

The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...

 and Alsace-Lorraine

Alsace-Lorraine

The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...

), eight-wheeled compartment coaches were built. They were predominantly used in the semi-fast trains or Eilzüge introduced in 1907 and in the so-called fast passenger trains. Over 3,500 coaches were built in several batches starting in 1818 (1918?). The compartments in the coaches were sometimes linked to provide access to the toilets. In third class coaches the privies lacked flushing facilities until some time later.

Initially the window frames on compartment coaches - like the coach bodies themselves - were made of wood, which very quickly warped. After 1900 they were made of a brass alloy based on a patent by the Julius Pintsch AG firm. The upper part of the window frame on these coaches was rounded.

From 1910 the former paraffin lighting was replaced by more efficient gas lighting. After 1900, rising wood prices forced a switch to steel construction and then to lower value materials during the First World War.

Prussian state railways

Prussian state railways

The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...

 coaches were equipped with standard bogies with two and later three spring systems. Most coaches were 18.55 m long. Initially Westinghouse brakes

Westinghouse brakes

Westinghouse Brakes may refer to:* A Railway air brake* Westinghouse Air Brake Company - US* Westinghouse Brakes - UK...

were used, but after 1900 they were fitted with standard Knorr brakes. The hand brake was housed in a separate brakeman's cabin

Brakeman's cabin

A brakeman's cabin or brakeman's caboose was a small one-man compartment at one end of a railway wagon to provide shelter for the brakeman from the weather and in which equipment for manually operating the wagon brake was located...

 at one end of the coach. These were removed in 1930.

Of the 21,000 compartment coaches of all types that were built, 14,000 were handed to other countries after the First World War as reparations

World War I reparations

World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...

. Of these, 5,000 went to the re-emergent Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

.

Overview of Prussian eight-wheeled coaches

Prussian class	DRG template	First built	No. of coaches	No. of seats	No. of toilets	Length over buffers	Remarks
ABB	B4 Pr 95	1895	350	10/31	3	18,15 m
ABCC	BC4 Pr 98	1898	200	5/21/32	4	18,20 m
CC	C4 Pr 94	1895	350	80	3	17,88 m
ABB	B4 Pr 02	1902	200	10/31	3
ABCC	BC4 Pr 98a	1898	200	50/31/32	4
CC	C4 Pr 02	1902	300	76	5
ABB	B4 Pr 04	1904	350	10/31	3
ABCC	BC Pr 04	1904	250	5/21/32	4
BCC	BC Pr 05	1905	100	20/48	5
CC	C4 Pr 04	1904	450	76	5
CC	C Pr 12/12a	1911	650	76	4	18,62 m
BB	B4 Pr 18	1918	40	47	3	19,20 m
CC	C4 Pr 18	1918	86	76	4

Length over buffers (LüP) is 18.55 m, unless otherwise stated

Development by the Deutsche Reichsbahn

In order to rationalise wagon maintenance the centre axle was removed from 1920 on many of the six-wheeled compartment coaches, because it had been established that this had no negative impact on the riding qualities. In addition, in order to overcome the pressing shortage of coaches following the ceasefire reparations of 1918/19, another 500 four-wheeled compartment coaches of Prussian design were ordered (50 seconds and 450 Wagen third class coaches). In addition, due to the great shortage of wagons, many former Prussian coaches were reallocated to the south German railway divisions so that they could now be seen across the entire German Empire

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

.

In the mid 1920s the brakeman's cabin

Brakeman's cabin

A brakeman's cabin or brakeman's caboose was a small one-man compartment at one end of a railway wagon to provide shelter for the brakeman from the weather and in which equipment for manually operating the wagon brake was located...

 was removed on those coaches that now ran on electrified routes. With the demise of the fourth passenger class in 1928, many compartment coaches were converted to coaches with heavy luggage sections (Traglastenwagen) by combining of compartments. After the DRG had introduced new four-door Typs E 30 Eilzugwagen

Eilzugwagen

The Eilzugwagen was a type of railway passenger coach specially developed for German semi-fast trains, known as Eilzüge. These coaches were first built in the 1930s and continued to be produced until the 1950s. Today all coaches of this type have been retired...

(semi-fast coaches) in 1930, still more coaches had passenger compartments knocked into larger compartments which were classed as heavy luggage compartments (Traglastenabteil).

Several of these compartment coaches were used for express services along the Ruhr (Ruhrschnellverkehr). They were given the DRG's red and beige livery used for multiple-unit trains. The window sections of second class coaches were painted in Stadtbahn blue-green (RAL

RAL (color space system)

RAL is a color matching system used in Europe. In colloquial speech RAL refers to the RAL CLASSIC system, mainly used for varnish and powder coating.- RAL CLASSIC:...

 6004) as on the Berlin S-Bahn

Berlin S-Bahn

The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...

. Even 18 new compartment coaches were bought for this purpose.

Post-war development

Most of the compartment coaches were rebuilt by the Deutsche Bundesbahn

Deutsche Bundesbahn

The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...

 (DB) in the 1950s into Umbauwagen (rebuild coaches). The compartment coaches that remained in the East German Reichsbahn (DR) had several compartments combined and, as on the six-wheeled coaches, every second door was removed. In the 1960s the compartment coaches were converted to the so-called Rekowagen (rebuilds).

Since the Second World War compartment coaches have largely died out in Germany, as in other European countries, and have been largely replaced by corridor coach

Corridor coach

A corridor coach is a type of railway passenger coach divided into compartments and having a corridor down one side of the coach to allow free movement along the train and between compartments....

es and, increasingly nowadays, open coaches.