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Chap. XI.] Railway Carriages. 127
The Sunday trains were in each case only two each way. Would that that modest provision had been maintained !
A few words about Railway carriages. The Brighton Company's carriages were always much below par compared with the carriages (in Railway parlance *' Coaches ") of the great northern Companies, and they continued to be so until pretty well the commencement of the 20th Century. Down to about 1865, there were four classes, the 4th Class having open sides, though roofed, but at an earlier period the cheap carriages had not even roofs. The last Railway carriages without roofs which I remember were used on the Woodford Branch of the Great Eastern Railway.
I can well recollect the excitement caused on the Brighton Line by the 2nd Class carriages having their seats covered with leather and being provided with a narrow leather cushion for one's back. These were regarded as a delightful innovation, and a proof that the Brighton Company were going ahead in the way of propitiating the public.
When the East-Bourne branch was opened, one engine did the whole of the work on the East-Bourne and Hailsham branches, running in turn, first to one place and then to the other. It will therefore readily be inferred that neither were the trains numerous nor the traffic heavy. A reserve engine wras stabled at East-Bourne. The driver's name was Jackson, the guard's Foster, and the station-master's Dickinson. This modest state of things lasted without material change for several years. The station buildings and platform were to the W. of the present station, and were pulled down at a later date in order that the Upperton Road should pass over their site. The date of the new station on the new site was about 1866, with a new station-master named Bond. There had been built about 1857, adjacent to the old station, two long sheds facing one another with a paved open space between them, the whole being dignified by the name of the " East-Bourne Market." As a market it did not last long, but the buildings were used on August 26, 1858 (and I rather think on a |
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