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, 1954 .]] British Railways 's first design of carriages were given the designation Mark 1. Initially, following Nationalisation in 1948, BR had continued to build carriages to the designs of the "Big Four" companies (the Great Western , Southern , London Midland And Scottish and London And North Eastern railways). The Mark 1 was intended to be the standard carriage design for use across all lines incorporating the best features of each of the former companies. It was also designed to be much stronger than previous designs to provide better protection for passengers in the event of an accident. CONSTRUCTION The design was used for hauled passenger stock, Multiple Unit carriages and non-passenger carrying stock. For passenger stock, construction continued from 1951 to 1963, while Mark 1 design multiple units and non-passenger carrying stock continued to be built until 1974. These were constructed in two lengths, 63ft 6in (approximately 19.5M) with bogies at 46ft 6in centres, and 57ft with bogies at 41ft centres. The shorter vehicles were intended for use where the track curvature was too tight to accommodate the 63ft 6in vehicles due to excessive overhang. These lengths allowed for compartments or seating bays of 6ft 3in (1.93M), plus space for toilets and entrance vestibules; a typical design of mark 1 vehicle, the TO (Open Third class) had 8 seating bays, three entrance vestibules and a pair of toilets at one end. This provided reasonable space. Care was taken to ensure that passengers could enjoy an unobstructed view out of the train from all seats. Seats were aligned to windows and on the long-distance design of mark 1, the windows themselves were characterised by a low cill, just 25in above the floor, An unusual feature of the design was the bodyside curvature, of 28ft radius and just noticeable; windows used flat glass and consequently the upper quarter was separate and in a different plane from the lower glazing, with an intervening transom, The opening portion of the windows were provided with sliding ventilators, with an external aerofoil for draught-free ventilation, the correct opening position being marked by a pair of arrows. Doors were provided with frameless droplights manufactured by Beclawat; these were supported by a spring-loaded lazytongs mechanism inside the lower part of the door, and the top of the window had a sprung metal clip enaging in slots on either side of the window opening. The bogies originally fitted to mark 1 stock proved unsatisfactory and a new cast-steel design was introduced from 1958. Later on, many vehicles were fitted with the B4 bogie, and a comfortable ride could then be relied on, as was evident in the later EMU vehicles. An important factor was the compressive coupling, which provided excellent inter-vehicular damping through the gangway end-plates, which quickly became highly polished, indicating that they were performing this task. XP64 At the end of the production of hauled Mark 1 stock, came a series of experimental carriages known as the XP64 train. Externally they resembled Mark 1 stock and were built using standard Mark 1 underframes, but inside they included many new features, including pressure ventilation and new seating designs. Many of these features were later incorporated in the Mark 2 stock produced from 1964. CRITICISM The steady building of mark 1 stock to replace earlier vehicles was praised by the Chief Inspecting Officer of Railways, Lt Col I K A McNaughton (Chief Inspecting Officer of Railways, Dept of Transport), in a lecture to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in 1977 (Sir Seymour Biscoe Tritton lecture). Speaking of the fall in fatalities since 1955, he put forward his opinion that a major factor in this improvement was "the introduction in 1951 of the BR standard Mark 1 passenger coach, which, over a period of about ten years, replaced pre-war designed rolling stock on most principal routes. The damage-resistant qualities of this all-steel coach, mounted on a 200 ton end-load resistant underframe and fitted with buckeye couplings have been evidenced time and time again. Only in a small number of very destructive accidents has serious body damage of the kind that inevitably leads to fatal accidents been observed and there have been several remarkable instances of high-speed derailments in which no personal injuries have occurred." However, after the 1988 Clapham Rail Accident , the Mark 1 design was criticised as it was no longer the best design for passenger protection, the Mark 3 design having excelled over it in this respect. In accidents like Clapham, where two units collided in line with each other, the Mark 1 design was prone to having the body shear away from the underframe, thereby crushing the passenger accommodation. The result of this criticism was pressure from the rail safety inspectorate to end the use of Mark 1 stock on the mainline and, in the meantime, the use of special equipment to minimise the problem. The equipment that was developed was called Cup and Cone, and while it was helpful, it was agreed that fitment to all stock would be too expensive in comparison with the safety benefits, when the stock was due to have only a short life and with improvements in signalling technology having reduced the likelihood of accidents where it would be most effective. As a result, Cup and Cone was never put into everyday use. Withdrawal of the Mark 1 units was not practical in 1988; the youngest units were only 14 years old, which is just short of halfway through a train's expected life of 30 years. In addition, British Rail was still using multiple units with underframes that had been constructed before World War II , and these had priority for replacement. POST-PRIVATISATION When Privatisation took place after 1994, only Connex South Eastern were given an extended franchise (15 years) in return for ordering new trains. Connex South Central and South Western Trains, the other major users of Mark 1 multiple units by that time, were not expected to order new trains. As a result, in 2000 Mark 1 units were still in use across most of the Southern Region with no new trains having been ordered. Events since then have moved rapidly. Each of the three southern rail franchises have ordered hundreds of new multiple units of classes 171 , 375 , 376 , 377 , 444 and 450 to replace the remaining Mark 1 stock. The use of Mark 1 stock on postal trains was curtailed when the Royal Mail decided to cease the use of rail to transport mail traffic. Thus, the problem of how to replace the large numbers of Mark 1 carriages on these services was answered. As of 2005 EWS has resumed some mail services however. FUTURE The final withdrawal of Mark 1s from daily mainline use took place in 2005, some 54 years since the design first entered service. Mark 1s continue to be used on special charter trains, but this use is also likely to be much reduced as Mark 3 coaches released from service by Virgin West Coast become available to replace them. This will leave preserved railways as the only place to ride on Mark 1 stock. Due to the lack of automated door locking and the structural inadequacies of Mark 1 stock at today's high speeds various rules now 2006 govern their usage. In particular vehicles lacking automated door locking require a steward to be present in each vehicle. Train companies are also recommended to run Mark I stock with more robust non-Mark I stock at either end to act as a barrier in the case of collisions. LIVERIES British Rail Mark I coaches have been painted a surprisingly wide range of liveries. At the point of introduction in 1951 the carriages followed a British Rail scheme of crimson and cream ("blood and custard") for corridor stock and carmine for non-corridor stock. 1956 saw the first big changes with the end of 'third class' and the return of regional colour schemes. The western region promptly adopted GWR chocolate and cream livery, and southern region reverted to green. The other regions adopted maroon. 1960 saw Southern Region adopt the now familiar yellow cantral above first class and red above dining cars. By 1963 this was found on all carriages. In 1962 the western region abandoned the use of chocolate and cream. 1964 saw big changes to coach ends. With the introduction of spray painting techniques the coach ends became the same colour as the bodywork. A year later the ubiquitous British Rail blue and grey was introduced with the British Rail Mark 2 and by 1968 all the Mark I stock was blue and grey. The use of blue and grey continued until 1982 when the first experiments in new liveries occurred. During the BR blue period other changes took place - notably the last 'Ladies' compartments vanished in 1977. 1982 saw a proliferation of new liveries applied to Mark I coaching stock including yellow and grey for stock that was requisitioned for engineering and maintenance work, 'executive' livery for inter-city stock and searail liveries. 1985 saw the reclassification of 'second class' as 'standard class' and the reappearance of some carriages in chocolate and cream for the GWR 150th anniversary celebrations along with a brief Scottish experiment in green and cream. 1986 saw postal trains and parcels trains turn Royal Mail red, the introduction of network south east liveries and inter city as a paint scheme along with the end of the searail livery. 1988 saw the first regional railways liveries adopted and from 1993 private operators began to paint their stock including Mark I carriages in private brand colours. REFERENCES
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