class coaches had three compartments each; they were very low and narrow, "travellers' knees were pressed uncomfortably hard against those of their opposite neighbour". Second class was equally cramped, and the seat was a bare board; the second class carriages were open to the weather on either side. Luggage was carried on the roof of first class carriages, and in boots underneath the seats, opening from the outside, in the case of second. "A frame work with seats, fitted on the bed of a carriage truck, constituted the vehicle in which third class passengers travelled in those days ; the frame work was removed upon the truck being required for its ordinary purpose." Goods When goods traffic commenced, the wagons were attached to the last passenger train of the day, but when the line was opened to Basingstoke a dedicated goods train was run. The guard travelled in a vehicle called a Noah's Ark, in which sundries and parcels were carried. The drawgear had no springing, and starting a heavy train was usually achieved by setting back on to a scotch, so as to slacken all the couplings, and then to start forward. Operating Up trains arriving at Nine Elms stopped before entering the station and the locomotive was detached; the train was then roped into the station. At this early date, a primitive form of time interval system was used: a train might not proceed until the preceding train was "well out of sight". The first accident was on 13 June 1840 when an engine ran into a train at Farnborough. Locomotives Locke, as engineer to the Company, was responsible for the locomotives. His experience on the Grand Junction Railway influenced his thinking; he used engines with a single driving wheel of 5 feet to 5 feet 6 in diameter, with outside cylinders 12 or 14 inches diameter and 18 inch stroke. Permanent way The gauge of the track was . The first rails ordered were of a flat-bottom wrought iron design, deep, and "of parallel form" as opposed to the fish-bellied pattern that had been popular previously. They were long. Kyanised half-round timber sleepers at spacing were used, with stone ballast from St Georges Hill, Weybridge. However it appears that some sleepers did not have preservative treatment, and their lives were accordingly short. The rails were to be in chairs at the joints, but otherwise fastened direct to