Re: ex C&TS Rider Cars D&S and Como

In reference to all of the stated views on the perceived horrors of bench seats in boxcars....

Wow, I am amazed that the Georgetown Loop stays in business with such painful, view blocking seats in their cars. Hard to believe that they manage to con 150,000+ people a year in to paying for the privilage of getting sore buttocks and a sprained neck while only being able to see the fellow torture victim across from them. Imagine how much more successful that railroad would be if they kept the center mounted, sloped backed benches that they started with!

Seriously though, the benches work well, the design was not picked out of thin air but was based on tears of experience carrying lots of passengers. While the center mounted benches have a certain appeal, experience will show that you can see just as much from a bench mounted along the side of the car, traffic flows better with an open center aisle and it is much easier to mount the benches solidly to the wall of the car as opposed to attempting to anchor them only to the floor. In my years working at the Loop, I never heard a complaint about the straightbacked benches being uncomfortable. While they are not parlor car seats, the beat the heck out of the old C&TS rider box seats and are alot roomier that cramming two 21st Century people into an authentic 19th century narrow gauge coach seat.

Jason Midyette
2nd Generation Builder of Tourist Torture Devices (straightbacked bench seats mounted along the sides of narrow gauge freight cars of various types) since 2004.