Salon carriage for the Duke of Wellington
The Duke of Wellington 's saloon car is the world's oldest known saloon car . It was built by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway for the Prime Minister , the Duke of Wellington , to open their line on September 15, 1830.
description
The car has not been preserved, there are only - slightly different - pictorial representations and textual descriptions. The vehicle was open, it ran on six axles and was 32 feet (just under 10 meters) long and 8 feet (just under 2.5 meters) wide. It had a lavish decoration in red and gold, a canopy eight meters long on eight gilded columns, purple curtains, gilding and to top it off, a ducal crown . The seating for the passengers was a sofa that stretched the entire length of the car and could seat 30 people. The car was built by the cabinet maker James Edmondson.
commitment
The car was used by the Duke of Wellington during the inaugural run of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and was one of the two vehicles involved in the fatal accident of the Liverpool MP , William Huskisson , alongside the Rocket .
After the one-time use at the opening of the railway , the car could then be rented by anyone for special trips.
literature
- Simon Garfield: The Last Journey of William Huskisson . Faber and Faber, 2002. ISBN 0-571-21048-1 .
Remarks
- ↑ See a side view in Garfield, p. 144, and a textual description by Egerton Smith, editor of the Liverpool Courier, also cited there .
- ↑ With only four axes, it depicts the gouache of an unknown artist (see: head of the article). Due to the supervision of the wagon at an angle, the artist may simply not be able to accommodate more than four axes here.