Chinese Student Wins Award for Passenger Car Design

[Victrola1]

A university student thought it was too crowded so she changed the design of hard-seat cars into two-deck ones, which rationally uses the space and adds more sleeping berths. This design made her win the national utility model patent of invention.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8146299.html

A Chinese university student has an idea to better utilize space in a passenger car.

Does anybody remember the college craze long ago of how many people you could fit in a phone booth?

[oltmannd]

Victrola1

A university student thought it was too crowded so she changed the design of hard-seat cars into two-deck ones, which rationally uses the space and adds more sleeping berths. This design made her win the national utility model patent of invention.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8146299.html

A Chinese university student has an idea to better utilize space in a passenger car.

Does anybody remember the college craze long ago of how many people you could fit in a phone booth?

Ask an 18 year old about a phone booth and they will look at you like you are speaking Chinese!

I guess the student that suggested "buy more baggage cars" didn't win.  

[Overmod]

My God, she's reinvented ... half the Pullman open-section car. 

The wrong half.

And not even a hint that she could put in little windows for the victims, er, happy sleeping passengers to see out.,..

One wonders if the rot in the railway administration over there also tends to an ignorance of history...

[Victrola1]

Phone Booth Cramming was a late-1950s fad with a simple premise: cram a phone booth full of dudes (and/or ladies) and take a picture before the people on the bottom suffocate. As you can imagine, this pastime was most popular among college students, and led to international rivalries. Yes, kids, this is the kind of thing we thought was fun back before we had video games...and when we still had phone booths. But this practice of people-packing goes to places weirder than phone booths, as you'll see in the historic (and bizarre) images below. - See more at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/30270/cramming-people-thing-photo-history#sthash.H7ZCYrGz.dpuf

Phone Booth Cramming was a late-1950s fad with a simple premise: cram a phone booth full of dudes (and/or ladies) and take a picture before the people on the bottom suffocate. As you can imagine, this pastime was most popular among college students, and led to international rivalries. Yes, kids, this is the kind of thing we thought was fun back before we had video games...and when we still had phone booths. But this practice of people-packing goes to places weirder than phone booths, as you'll see in the historic (and bizarre) images below. - See more at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/30270/cramming-people-thing-photo-history#sthash.H7ZCYrGz.dpuf

Phone Booth Cramming was a late-1950s fad with a simple premise: cram a phone booth full of dudes (and/or ladies) and take a picture before the people on the bottom suffocate. As you can imagine, this pastime was most popular among college students, and led to international rivalries. Yes, kids, this is the kind of thing we thought was fun back before we had video games...and when we still had phone booths. But this practice of people-packing goes to places weirder than phone booths, as you'll see in the historic (and bizarre) images below. - See more at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/30270/cramming-people-thing-photo-history#sthash.H7ZCYrGz.dpuf

Alexander Graham Bell, meet George Pullman. All it takes is wheels.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30270/cramming-people-thing-photo-history

[schlimm]

oltmannd

I guess the student that suggested "buy more baggage cars" didn't win.  

And probably didn't suggest buying more lounge and dining cars, either.  Perhaps if Amtrak insists on continuing LD sleeper cars, they could get a licensing fee to build her design here: lower level coach, upper level berths. 

[BaltACD]

The reality is there is very little 'new' in inventions.  Thus the 'reinvention' of the standard North American section sleeper by the Chinese girl.

As North American society 'progressed' it desired more privacy than the section sleeper provided and thus it faded from common memory only to be 'reinvented' by the Chinese girl that never had any experience or education about it's prior existance.

[schlimm]

As I look at the crude drawing, it appears the seats remain on the lower level, with berths only on the upper.  The capacity would be a lot more than the 32 in a 16 section sleeper of old.

[D.Carleton]

Now now, let's give the kid some credit. Given the choice of over-nighting in an Amfleet 2 coach (with the requisite visit to the chiropractor) or sleeping in the rack the decision is obvious.

[zugmann]

Overmod

And not even a hint that she could put in little windows for the victims, er, happy sleeping passengers to see out.,..

Why would a sleeping passenger need a window? 

[CMStPnP]

zugmann

Overmod

And not even a hint that she could put in little windows for the victims, er, happy sleeping passengers to see out.,..

Why would a sleeping passenger need a window? 

Well on a Amtrak train you only see the Conductor outside his table full of coffee and doughnuts in the lounge car maybe once or twice roving the train.      So the window would come in handy to see if you slept past your station stop.

[schlimm]

CMStPnP:  Chinese passenger cars (in the past at least) would have been a memory trip for you.  They were a Soviet design which was reminiscent of the old Milwaukee Road cars with the horizontal ribs.