Passenger Car Compartment

A passenger car compartment at the Eveleigh Paint Shop is one of the small enclosed seating bays built into the side of an older interurban or long-distance carriage. The compartment is wide enough to seat six adults across two facing bench seats, with a sliding door opening onto the side corridor of the carriage. The seats are upholstered in heavy moquette. Brass handrails sit at the door frame and the window frame. The window is a single drop-sash, opened by a leather pull strap. Timber panelling lines the walls between the seats, polished and waxed. Overhead, a brass luggage rack runs the length of the compartment. A small reading light is fixed to the bulkhead above each seat.

The compartment arrangement was the standard for higher-class and long-distance passenger carriages on the NSW Government Railways through the first half of the twentieth century, before open-saloon layouts replaced it on most services. Compartments gave a degree of privacy for the longer trips, kept families and groups together, and accommodated luggage with the passengers rather than in a separate van. The compartment in this photograph is one of several in a heritage carriage held at the Eveleigh Paint Shop by Historic Electric Traction. The carriage is retired from active service.