Chinese Liverpool: An Odd Liverpool and Manchester Railway Carriage

[What About The Bee]

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway had a very curious carriage, about which we know very little. We have a few images and little else. Clearly, it is a carriage from the early days. It is autonomously named the Chinese Liverpool carriage.

Let us begin with an Ackerman print

Bottom row, left. A yellow carriage, but it doesn't look at all like 1st Wellington, or 1st Queen Adelaide, also present in the same illustration. There is a center door, a wall of openings and an odd shape.

Ackermann prints have variation when printed, some are better than others, better colors, etc.  This alternate print clearly shows those openings are glass windows

We have some more inescapable evidence. The Ackermann prints also include this gem of the railway office on the Liverpool end of the line

Notice that carriage furthest away. Indisputably that Chinese Liverpool carriage, coupled to a rake of nominal 1st class carriages.

Ackermann prints are considered fairly definitive. We can examine the evidence provided with a fair degree of confidence.

Firm Conclusion #1. Clearly a 1st class carriage. Its yellow, reserved for 1st. It has glass windows, found only on 1st class carriages. 

It is coupled to other 1st class carriages.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Trust found this piece of artwork in their files. There is no attribution or even a tentative date. It simply exists.

Now that train in the middle made me sit up. It shows the Chinese Liverpool carriage, but interestingly, further back in the rake are those odd, Double Box Center Entry 2nd Class Carriages.

This got me thinking. Are they similar? I examined the Ackermann print that has a rake of those Double Box Center Entry 2nd Class Carriages. I selected one and performed an imagery comparison.  

I first flipped over the Chinese Liverpool image so the perspective was the same, you can see that, the writing is inverted. I then changed the sizes whilst maintaining proportions, until the width of the center entry on both carriages was the same. I then compared the length of the Chinese Liverpool to the Double Box Center Entry 2nd Class Carriages. Almost perfectly the same, from two different Ackermann prints. What attention to detail! I then presented that Chinese Liverpool 1st class carriage image, now fixed in size, for an elevation comparison. Again, nearly a perfect match!

Firm Conclusion #2: The two carriages are extremely close in general proportions. This becomes a fundamental consideration to estimating passenger count.

The Ackerman print of trains has one with three Double Box Center Entry 2nd Class Carriages in consist. So 6 boxes of passengers for three carriages. I then counted the number of passengers in each box and found that the quantity varied between 8 and 10 persons. I could also observe that many of the passengers closest to the viewer had their backs to us. This leads me to a tentative seating arrangement.

In the top half of the image, I propose that in the Double Box Center Entry 2nd Class Carriages, the corridor is in between the seats. This would be consistent with the passenger backs, as shown. Passenger legs dangle in the middle of the two facing benches. White circles with blue borders are nominal passenger seating locations. Since this is second class, more passengers could squeeze in, or even stand in the corridor. 8 to 10 passengers per box.  

In the bottom half of the image, I propose the probable seating arrangement for the Chinese Liverpool carriage. With the narrowing of the top half, the passengers cannot be seated facing in, but will be seated facing out, back to back on longitudinal center.  

Now why 3 passengers on each side of the bench? Carefully examine the Ackermann carriage illustration. Notice the yellow muntins? Muntins are vertical window separation members. I've carefully indicated each yellow muntin. Note the size of the center door window, and then each of the side windows. The center door must be slightly greater than shoulder width, to permit passenger boarding. The windows on either side are narrower, but not by much. Passengers can be seated closer together in dimension than corridor widths. This leads me to a tentative conclusion of 1 window per passenger. The passengers sit side by side, facing out, looking at the spectacular view of the country side passing by, through the window. 3 per side per box. 

I get a maximum capacity of 12 passengers with this analysis of the Chinese Liverpool carriage. 

This may be compared to 1st Wellington. Three compartments, two facing benches per compartment, three abreast. That is, 6 passengers per compartment × 3 compartments, yields maximum capacity of 18 passengers for 1st Wellington.

While watching the panoramic view may have been wonderful for the passengers in the Chinese Liverpool carriage, the efficiency of the nominal 1st class carriage meant more paying passengers and more revenue per carriage for the LMR. The Chinese Liverpool carriage fades into oblivion.

Hornby have demonstrated an appetite for LMR carriages. R30090 has the carriage Booth illustrated in 1830. The Royal Mail carriage in R3856. Queen Adelaide's carriage in R40357.

Why not the Chinese Liverpool carriage? Its fairly easy to model, in basic principle a narrower box on top of a wider box Window glazing with the black and yellow muntins printed on the glazing. Roof racks and a seat for the guard. Black printing of the name and pin stripes. The undercarriage is identical to any 1st class LMR carriage.  

Please!

Bee

[What About The Bee]

An 1830 watercolor by Issac Shaw. Shaw is what I consider to be a first hand good observer.

That carriage at the end of the line has a peculiar roof line. It appears to be the Chinese Liverpool carriage.

Perhaps this is the reason for the name, the pagoda like roof. The sloping boxes also appear a bit shallower than other illustrations which may alleviate the issue I had with the passage between the center bench seats and the inset door. If the boxes are shallower, it permits a wider passage way. On the other hand, the sloping boxes appear outboard of the other carriages in consist, unlike Ackermann, another known good observer.

Extra points for the carriage on the right

Bee