Open seating car (railway)

Open seating car with face-to-face seating (2nd class)

Open seating car with row seating and seats at the table (1st class)

As Großraumwagen , aisle cart or outdated also intercommunication car be through Cart the railway referred in which the seats are arranged in one or more metropolitan areas with a continuous central corridor. The first open seating cars appeared in the USA in the first half of the 19th century ; The model for its design was the cabin of the paddle steamers popular in America . The vehicles , originally referred to as "American System Passenger Cars " or "American Cars " due to their origin , were soon also used by European railwaysaccepted. At first they were mainly used in rural regional traffic , while in urban local traffic and long-distance traffic , compartment cars predominated. Some European railways, such as B. the Swiss Northeast Railway or the Württemberg State Railway , but from the beginning preferred open-plan cars for all types of trains. This led to the fact that in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, after initial experiments with partially unheated freight wagons, only the Württemberg wagons were used for the transport of the sick and wounded in medical trains. In contrast to the Baden compartment wagons, "their design was particularly suitable for transporting the sick and wounded".

Since the beginning of the 20th century, open-plan cars have become common practice in local transport and also began to spread in long-distance transport. High-speed trains often only consist of open-plan cars.

The seats in Großraumwagen are in seating against ( vis-à-vis ) or behind one another, partly arranged in the direction of travel with swivel seats; there are also mixed arrangements. Seats facing each other can be equipped with fixed tables; if the seats are arranged one behind the other, there are often folding tables in the backrest.

Open-plan cars are almost always equipped with cross- car connections. Originally these were open stages at the ends of the wagons, since the end of the 19th century the transitions have mostly been protected with bellows or rubber bulges .

Web links

Wiktionary: Open seating car  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karlsruher Zeitung of November 4, 1870
2. ^ Albert Kuntzemüller : The Baden Railways in the Franco-German War 1870/71 , in: Report of the Realgymnasium with Realschule Mannheim, Lessing School - school year 1913/14 , Masur, Mannheim 1914, p. 25