Planning Car Layouts and Window Arrangements

Car layouts generally follow some well established rules as there are significant constraints in setting out what is essentially a very long and very narrow space. The components – rooms or sections in sleepers, parlour chairs, coach seats, wc’s, vestibules – are all treated as modules and come with invariant size.  It is a matter of assembling the components and playing with a few items which gives a certain flexibility.

To lay out the floor plan, I usually select a length of floor and draw a line scaled to that length. Since I have an HO steel ruler, it is easy for me to use 1/87 for my diagrams. Against that line, I lay out the floor plan fitting in the various modular components.  When I am satisfied with the arrangement against that car side, I sketch in the window arrangement corresponding to the interior. Above the diagram I now add another line to represent the opposite car side and sketch its windows the same way noting especially differences.  These differences from one side to the other can occur for a variety of reasons but the most usual is an aisle on one side of the car while there are special spaces on the other.

Let’s see how this works in practice by examining a specific car and to be fair, a car more complex than most. The example chosen is a solarium lounge observation sleeper where the desire is to squeeze in as much revenue space as is possible consistent with the multiple uses planned for the car.

Lay down a line to represent one side of the car at our chosen length of 50 feet (the max practical size for a narrow gauge heavyweight or composite car riding on 4 wheel trucks).  The vestibule on one end is 3 feet wide and the observation platform on the other end is 4 feet.  These spaces are inviolate so are marked in on the length at the outset.  Similarly, washrooms for men and women must be provided in a car with public space and so 4 feet of space marked WC is provided on each side of the car. It is convenient to locate these at an end since the entry door to the car is in the middle and these rooms can flank the door to either side.  Suddenly our available length has been cut to 39 feet. 

About a ten foot length of lounge space next to the observation platform affords a nice solarium for 6 chairs with enough space to include a small buffet for serving drinks and light collations.  This is not a grand space but given the need to provide some revenue accommodation, seems to be a reasonable compromise.

The remaining 29 feet of length can be used for revenue space. In an observation car, it is usual to locate the best accommodations so that suggests that no open sections should be included.  Considering the room options available, a drawing room (10 feet) and 3 compartments (6 feet each) seem the best usage of the space giving revenue from as many as 9 passengers paying in fares the equivalent to 18 open section berths.  These rooms sit against one side of the car with an aisle on the opposite side and are laid out that way in the drawing. 

Now the windows are laid out.  The vestibule end would have a vestibule window either side and their would of course be the vestibule doors plus a third door for entry to the car itself.  On the side just laid out, there would be an oval window and the wc portion of the drawing room would also have an oval window. The drawing room and each compartment would have the traditional double window while a big triple window would be placed in the solarium lounge. The observation platform end would have either an offset door and one double window (my preference) or two vestibule windows flanking a central door.

The opposite side line is drawn and the interior space notated allowing the windows to be laid out.  It is similar to the first side … the difference being that an aisle is opposite the sleeping accommodation eliminating one of the oval windows and one of the doubles with changed spacing to suit.  Adding up the windows gives a total of 2 vestibule, 3 oval, 8 double, 2 triple and 4 doors.

Here is the diagram that I drew in planning this car.  Note that though the length is to scale so I could accurately see what would fit, the width is not. However, the detail is sufficient for estimating window requirements and also to prepare elevation drawings for constructing the car sides.

The plans for the train called for a variety of cars.  Accordingly, I sketched the plans for 7 cars in all including 3 types of sleepers, a parlour car, diner, official car and a combine. These drawings show (to scale) the length and the corresponding window locations. 

An associated drawing gives the exact dimensions of the window centerlines.  As we worked on the side elevation sketches, a few modifications to the floorplans were made. As a result, these sketches have some minor differences as compared to the floorplans and represent an evolution in our thinking.