Cork, Blackrock & Passage pre-1900 (5'3" gauge)

[Mol_PMB]

There seems to have been an early design of third class coaches with saloon accommodation, rather than doors to individual compartments. They usually had 2 doors on each side, and benches around the edges, sometimes also longitudinal benches back-to-back in the middle of the vehicle. 

Noting that the description of the CBPR broad gauge carriages said 'in several instances had the seats arranged around the sides'  I suspect some of them were of this type, including the first carriage in the photo above.

As mentioned previously, there's a drawing of a 4-wheeler in Ernie Shepherd's MGWR book, a third saloon with longitudinal seating and 2 doors per side. There are also two photos of an older variant in MGWR service. One is in a c1870 photo of Sligo, page 28 in Ernie Shepherd's MGWR book. The second carriage in this train is of the same type:

[jhb171achill]

3 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

There seems to have been an early design of third class coaches with saloon accommodation, rather than doors to individual compartments. They usually had 2 doors on each side, and benches around the edges, sometimes also longitudinal benches back-to-back in the middle of the vehicle. 

Noting that the description of the CBPR broad gauge carriages said 'in several instances had the seats arranged around the sides'  I suspect some of them were of this type, including the first carriage in the photo above.

As mentioned previously, there's a drawing of a 4-wheeler in Ernie Shepherd's MGWR book, a third saloon with longitudinal seating and 2 doors per side. There are also two photos of an older variant in MGWR service. One is in a c1870 photo of Sligo, page 28 in Ernie Shepherd's MGWR book. The second carriage in this train is of the same type:

I’ve seen that pic before - for Irish railways it’s a very early one. 

You’re right about the carriages, but often wondered what that passenger brake / luggage van was like close up, or its history. 

Incidentally, re the idea of centre door and bench seating round each “half”, a couple of Schull coaches were like that, as is the original royal / director’s saloon half of coach F75 in the Isle of Man. 

The Donegal 5-wheel saloon in Cultra to an extent, too.

I saw an old derelict 4-wheel coach in India in the 1970s which was like this - centre door and wooden board seating around the perimeter - but being 5’6” gauge, and with a much bigger loading gauge dimension than here, it had a bench down the middle too. 

Edited yesterday at 11:24 by jhb171achill

[Mol_PMB]

I just thought to look at the CIE archives and they contain quite a bit on the CBPR including page-by-page scans of almost all the minute books:

Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway Company Archives

For example this page from August 1893 refers to the cost of adding automatic brakes to the trains in that year (which helps to date the surviving photos which all show vacuum brakes fitted):

Minute book, board, committee and shareholders' meetings of the Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway Company

Obviously there's a huge amount more to read...

The annual Board of Trade returns ought to include details of the rolling stock too; I'm not sure where they would be available but I'm sure they are somewhere. 

[Mol_PMB]

Some carriage snippets, no doubt there are more but I don't have time to go down this rabbit hole!

31 May 1851: Buying out Dawson including the carriages and engines:

 

13 September 1853: First and second class carriages to be painted:

 

Every half-year there is a report giving the capital value of the rolling stock, but not the actual number of vehicles. However, it may be reasonable to assume that large increases in the capital value represent the purchase of additional vehicles. The revenue account also shows the amount spent on repairs.