(Note that this window is fixed open on a ratchet rather than a leather
strap.)
During the 1940s and 1950s, I particularly remember how difficult it was
to open train doors from the inside.
There was no central locking
mechanism to prevent doors being opened while the train was moving, so I
suppose it was sensible to make the latches stiff for safety reasons. There
were certainly notices up about not opening doors until the train came to a standstill.
In fact, passengers in a hurry, always did seem to open the door and jump
out while the train was still drawing to a halt on a platform, but they must
have been fit anyway or they could never have managed to get the door open.
The old films often added drama by showing people being thrown out of
or jumping from moving trains,
and this was certainly possible in theory. However, the latches were so stiff
that I for one, even as a teenager, needed both hands to open them.
Screen shots from old films: left showing the inside train latches
of the old British trains, and right showing someone jumping from a
moving train, having opened the door.
Doors that opened only from the outside
A grab handle and a door handle on the outside of the
door of an old train,
reached from the inside by leaning out of the window. Photographed at Mizens
Railway, Woking.
Some of the 'newer' trains had door handles that only opened from the
outside - which was, I suppose, to improve safety. It meant, though, that if no-one on
the platform wanted to get in at a particular door, and passengers wanted to
get out, the passengers had to lower the window and lean out to get to the
exterior handle.
So opening this type of train door
was a dirty business as the inside of one's sleeve had to go tightly
over the open and invariably sooty window, and it also required a certain amount of strength.
When I needed to get out, I would walk along the
corridor to find a male
passenger with a long arm waiting to get out, and let him lean out
of the window to open the door.
