Railroad carriage question (woefully long)

[pengolodh_sc at yahoo.no]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., pengolodh_sc at y... wrote:
> > Oh, there's no question about that (even if the seats on the 
> Hogwarts 
> > Express ar not slashed).  The one I'm trying to figure out is how 
> > they enter and exit the carriage - through doors at each end, or 
> > through doors directly to each compartment.  
> > 
> 
> Whoa, I thought I was following the whole description but you lost
> me there.
> 
> Let's say the train is headed due north and the platform is on the 
> west side of the train.  Okay, the way I followed your theory is 
> that the corridor runs along the east side, the compartments along 
> the west side of the train, and that there is a door on the west 
> side (onto the platform) and on the east side (into the corridor).  
> This permits Harry to load his trunk directly off the platform 
> (with some help from Gred and Forge <g>) and also permits people to 
> come in and out via the corridor.

And there are also doors on the east-side of the carriage, in case 
that happens to be the side facing the platform.

> Now you seem to be introducing the possibility of a north and/or 
> south entrance to the compartment?  a la Amtrak (which has ONLY a 
> north and  south entrance, with no way directly out of a 
> compartment onto the platform)?

Well, that *is* how post-1910 compartment-carriages have been  
organised, with entrance- and exit-doors at each end of the carriage, 
leaging into the corridor.  Oh, I'll just draw a picture and slap it 
up - much easier to explain that way.  The East- *and West-doors 
would be a strictly British approach to things.

> BTW, I like the east- and west-door possibility but I don't think 
> it's  strictly necessary.  Maybe Harry loaded his trunk onto the 
> train and  then took it along the corridor and into the only (the 
> east) door.
> 
> I don't have a PoA with me, but IIRC, it seems to imply a single 
> door...they keep looking out the window to the outside--wouldn't it 
> say out the door if it were a door to the outside?

There would be a window in the door, and one on each side of the door.

> Amy Z
> dangerously close to on-topic but sufficiently long-winded to keep 
> this post on this list