Tourist Standard Open
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Tourist Second Open or Tourist Standard Open, abbreviated to TSO, is a type of
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...
ways
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. The designation "Tourist" was originally as opposed to a normal SO ( Second Open) coach. Both types have the same number of seating bays per coach, but the TSO has four seats across, arranged 2+2 either side of a central aisle, while an SO has 3 seats across, arranged 2+1 with an offset aisle. Both offer the same legroom, but there is slightly less width per passenger in a TSO. Even though the designations would appear to suggest that the SO was the standard type and the TSO a variant, in reality the TSO has been the default design of open coach on British Railways since the dawn of the
Mark 1 Mark 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It recounts the proclamation of John the Baptist, the baptism of Jesus Christ, his temptations and the beginning of his ministry in Galilee. Text ...
era, built in large numbers, with comparatively few SO vehicles constructed, mainly for use as Third/Second/Standard class restaurant cars. In 1987, British Rail changed the title to Tourist Standard Open, when "Second Class" became "Standard Class" across the network. The TSO designation remains in use for Mark 3A and
Mark 4 Mark 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It tells the parable of the Sower, with its explanation, and the parable of the Mustard Seed. Both of these parables are paralleled in Matthew and ...
Open Standard carriages., even though no SO coaches have been constructed since the Mark 2a build in the mid 1960s. The designation TSO is also used for Trailer Standard Open in the system of
British Rail coach type codes British Railways coach designations were a series of letter-codes used to identify different types of coaches, both passenger carrying and non-passenger carrying stock (NPCS). The code was generally painted on the end of the coach but non-gangwa ...
. Whereas Tourist Standard Open applies only to loco-hauled stock, Trailer Standard Open is used in multiple-unit stock; in this case most have 2+2 seating but some have 3+2.


Mark 1

The
Mark 1 Mark 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It recounts the proclamation of John the Baptist, the baptism of Jesus Christ, his temptations and the beginning of his ministry in Galilee. Text ...
TSO contains sixteen seating bays of four seats each, three transverse entrance vestibules, and two toilets arranged either side of a central corridor leading to the gangway at one end. The sixteen bays are distributed along the coach in two saloons of eight bays either side of the almost-central door vestibule (this is slightly offset towards one end by the presence of the toilets at the other end), and the saloon nearest to the toilets is further divided into two saloons of four bays each by a transverse partition. The bay spacing is , this being the standard for Mark 1 Third / Second / Standard class, and identical to the compartment spacing in Mark 1 side corridor stock. The first 20 Mark 1 TSOs (3700-19) did not have the centre door vestibule, so the 8 seating bays were spread equally along the saloon length. No Mark 1 TSOs are still in use with franchised TOCs, however a number are still in active service with railtour and charter operators. They are also found on almost all mainland UK standard gauge heritage/preserved/tourist lines.


Mark 2

The Mark 2 TSO was a direct development of the Mark 1 version, and the early Mark 2 TSOs (Mark 2 and Mark 2a) had an almost identical layout, including the pair of toilets either side of the gangway at one end and the two identical four-bay saloons separated by a just-off-mid-coach transverse vestibule, with further transverse vestibules at the outer end of each saloon. Unlike those in the Mark 1 TSOs, the Mark 2 saloons were not further subdivided. The Mark 2b design saw the centre vestibule abolished, although the mid-coach divider was retained to still give two saloons of four bays each. The space saved by the abolition of the centre vestibule was used to re-locate the toilets, with one now placed at each end, with the entrance vestibules beyond them. This enabled the fitting of wide wrap-round end doors in place of the traditional narrow ones. The basic layout of the Mark 2 TSO remained unaltered from the 2b to the 2f, although finish, materials, seating, and ventilation arrangements changed with each new build. Full details of the various changes are listed in the Mark 2 Development Table in the main Mark 2 article.


Usage

Mark 2 coaches gradually replaced Mark 1s on crack express services, allowing the older vehicles to cascade down to secondary services and thus enable the steady withdrawal of pre-nationalisation designs. Early Mark 2s were then in turn cascaded as later designs took over top-link workings. Air-conditioned Mark 2s generally worked in express trains on the great main lines, with pressure-ventilated Mark 2s used along with Mark 1 coaches on secondary services. Prior to the introduction of the HSTs, the standard Anglo-Scottish express train on the
East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...
would be formed of a '' Deltic'' locomotive and eight air-conditioned Mark 2 coaches. The final mainstay of Mark 2 operation, using Mark 2e and Mark 2f vehicles, were the inter-regional express trains on the West Coast Main Line (hauled by a variety of diesel and electric locomotives), and the Cross Country network, where they were usually hauled by Class 47 locomotives. At the time of the
privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the Rail transport in Great Britain, railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely compl ...
in the mid-1990s, Mark 2 TSOs were operated in sizable numbers by
Anglia Railways Anglia Railways was a train operating company in England, owned by GB Railways and later FirstGroup, that operated the Anglia franchise from January 1997 until March 2004. History The Anglia franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Ra ...
,
First Great Western First Greater Western, trading as Great Western Railway (GWR), is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that provides services in the Greater Western franchise area. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR ...
,
Gatwick Express Gatwick Express is an express rail passenger service between , , and in South East England. It is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway train operating company on the Gatwick Express route of the Thameslink, Southern and Great N ...
,
Virgin CrossCountry Virgin CrossCountry was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the InterCity CrossCountry passenger franchise from January 1997 until November 2007. Along with the InterCity West Coast franchise held by a separate legal ...
and
Virgin Trains West Coast Virgin Trains (VT) (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise fro ...
. Other operators including
Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city se ...
,
Abellio ScotRail Abellio ScotRail, operating services under the name ScotRail, was the national train operating company of Scotland. A subsidiary of the Netherlands-based transport conglomerate Abellio (transport company), Abellio, it operated the ScotRail (br ...
,
Arriva Rail North Arriva Rail North Limited, branded as Northern by Arriva, was a train operating company in Northern England which began operating the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016 and inherited units from the previous operator Northern Rail. A subsidiary ...
,
Arriva Trains Northern Arriva Trains Northern was a train operating company in England owned by Arriva that operated the Regional Railways North East franchise from March 1997 until December 2004. History As part of the privatisation of British Rail, the Regio ...
,
Arriva Trains Wales Arriva Trains Wales (ATW; ) was a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains that operated the Wales & Borders franchise. It ran urban and inter-urban passenger services to all railway stations in Wales, including , , , , and , ...
,
First North Western First North Western was a train operating company in England owned by FirstGroup that operated the North West Regional Railways franchise from March 1997 until December 2004. History In the lead up to the privatisation of British Rail, the Nor ...
,
First ScotRail First ScotRail was a train operating company in Scotland owned by FirstGroup. It operated the ScotRail franchise between October 2004 and March 2015. On 17 October 2004, First ScotRail took over operations from the incumbent franchisee, ScotRai ...
,
Northern Rail Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated the ...
,
Silverlink Silverlink was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated the North London Railways franchise from March 1997 until November 2007. At the end of 2007, Silverlink Metro services were taken over by Lo ...
,
Transport for Wales Rail Transport for Wales Rail Limited, branded as Transport for Wales and TfW Rail ( and ), is a Welsh State-owned enterprises of the United Kingdom, publicly owned train operating company, a subsidiary of Transport for Wales (TfW), a Welsh Governme ...
,
Wales & Borders Wales and Borders was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated the Wales & Borders franchise from October 2001 until December 2003. History In October 1996, the Valley Lines franchise commenced oper ...
,
Wales & West Wales & West was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the South Wales & West franchise from 1996 until 2001. The franchise was operated by Prism Rail from October 1996 until July 2000, when the firm was taken over by N ...
and
Wessex Trains Wessex Trains was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated the Wessex Trains franchise from October 2001 until March 2006, when the franchise was merged with the Great Western and Thames Trains ...
hired in Mark 2 TSOs at various points. As at September 2019, they only remained in service with Abellio ScotRail and Transport for Wales Rail. Excursion trains still use a few members of the once widely operated fleet. Mark 2 coaches have also found favour with some heritage railways, one notable user being the
Mid-Norfolk Railway The Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) is a preserved standard gauge heritage railway, one of the longest in Great Britain. Preservation efforts began in 1974, but the line re-opened to passengers only in the mid-1990s as part of the "new generation" o ...
, who have the NRM-owned prototype coach, and the
Wensleydale Railway The Wensleydale Railway is a heritage railway in Wensleydale and Lower Swaledale in North Yorkshire, England. It was built in stages by different railway companies and originally extended to Garsdale railway station on the Settle-Carlisle line ...
, who operate a small fleet of Mark 2 a/b vehicles.


Mark 3

No HST carriages are designated TSO. They are classified as TS Trailer Second, reflecting the HST's initial DMU status. The loco-hauled Mark 3 carriages (officially designated as Mark 3A or 3B) include vehicles classified as TSOs. They are referred to as Open Standard, the original meaning of TSO having become obsolete as no Mark 3 SO vehicles were constructed. Mark 3A TSO vehicles are numbered in the 12000-12172 range.


Mark 4

As with Mark 3A vehicles, Mark 4 Open Standards carry the TSO designation. Further sub divisions exist: TSOE Open Standard (End) and TSOD Open Standard (Disabled Access). The TSOE vehicles are specifically designed to be adjacent to the train locomotive and were built with a single corridor connection at one end only. The other end of the coach has no corridor connection, just a small window and fixed taillights, although the structural arrangements to allow a corridor connection to be added if required at a later date are present. Mark 4 TSO vehicles are numbered in the 12200-12232 (TSOE), 12300-12331 (TSOD) and 12400-12538 (TSO) ranges.


See also

*
Open coach An open coach is a railway passenger coach that does not have compartments or other divisions within it and in which the train seats are arranged in one or more open plan areas with a centre aisle. The first open coaches appeared in the first ha ...


References

{{British Rail Coaches British Rail coaching stock