The coaches used by different companies in Portugal at the beginning of the 20th century, which had been built in the final decades of the 19th century, had very different characteristics: they usually featured an iron chassis, based on two or three independent axes, on which rested a wooden box or later on, steel plate.
Until the 1960s, passenger services were structured into three classes. Passengers who purchased a third-class ticket travelled in coaches such as C8f 557. This series of coaches was purchased for long-distance services such as postal and regional trains. However, they could also be used comfortably for fast services.
They had compartments separated by partitions, electric lighting, heating and benches with wooden slats, which were connected by a side corridor with windows along with a bathroom in the middle of the coach. They operated until the 1970s. In their final phase, they were used in mixed, regional and suburban trains on the Minho and Douro lines, where their services ended.
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