Non smoking and Smoking compartments.

[Khandro]

In a book I have just read, a passage deals with Polish soldiers and a mix-up between smoking and non-smoking railway compartments during WW2. Can any rail enthusiasts, or indeed can anyone remember personally, if it said 'Smoking' on some compartments? I can remember myself, the 'Non smoking' signs but I would have thought that those where smoking was permitted would have been unmarked.

[ChuckFickens]

http://farm2.static.f...647458_a629e221d9.jpg

http://wwwdelivery.su.../Thumb/1895-34917.jpg

http://upload.wikimed....org.uk_-_1594721.jpg

[Khandro]

How do you do it so quickly chuck? Though the first can't be a UK train ( Sorry I should have said that) The second looks like a dodgy film set, and the third, well that could be anywhere I guess.

[ChuckFickens]

The first is a Canadian train sometime early 1900's

The second is a UK train from 1936 (I did find a larger version and below the smoking sign is an advert for will tobacco, a UK brand)

The third is a GER (great eastern railways) train, again from early 1900's sometime

[ChuckFickens]

here's the bigger version of number two with some details
http://www.superstock...rCat=&filterForFotog=

[Khandro]

Thanks, but there seems something bogus about the window with a Wills advert on that sign. The story is in 'Joe's War' by Annette Kobak -Virago. a biography of her father. The Polish soldiers escaping from German occupied France arrive by ship at Liverpool to be sent on by train to Scotland. They had never seen a railway carriage with upholstered seats before and the word Smoking in polish (and in other languages) means a dinner jacket, which they thought you had to wear within, so they all went in Non-Smoking, and lit up!