From: ahk@chinet.com

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

>Just curious--does anyone have an opinion as to the superiority of the
>gallery type commuter coach (as used by Chicago railroads) vs. the
>multi-level coach as used by NJ Transit, LIRR, etc.?

>That is, which are preferred by passengers, which have faster
>loading/unloading, which are preferred by crews, ride quality, ease of
>maintenance, etc.?

>(In my own opinion, I prefer single level cars like NJT's Arrow MUs.
>I've never ridden a gallery car, but I feel the multi-levels, while
>popular with many, have some disadvantages).

The gallery car, now in use in Chicago for 63 years, was designed for
two purposes:

1) It fit under the train shed at Chicago Union Station.

2) CB&Q and, later, C&NW and the other railroads, could serve a growing
suburban ridership without adding members of the train crew.

There's some discussion that loading and unloading through center doors
is faster than through end doors, but I'm not sure how that can really be
true. C&NW had three stream of passengers with dividers, so that sped things
up. We've gotten away from that in cars with wheelchair lifts, which
reverted to two streams of passengers.

IC Highliners had a modified design. Floor-height board obviously reduced
dwell time, large vestibule with a small partition for the conductor to
stand behind to make announcements and operate doors, although it's also
useable for passengers. In addition, there's boarding at the end door
through the engineer's cab when not in use, so that speeds things up.
The gallery is smaller on the cab side to accomodate the pantograph.

Passengers get used to anything. Only on Usenet have I read gripes about the
need to bend to sit beneath the gallery. Oddly, these people don't sit in
the gallery; no bending required.

With gallery cars, you get a lot more seats versus Toronto-style cars,
so that's definitely preferred by passengers.

I think dwell time is more of an issue of steps to climb than where the
vestibule is.

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