slip coach

English

Noun

slip coach (plural slip coaches)

1. (rail transport) A coach at the end of a long-distance train which carries passengers for an intermediate destination and is decoupled or "slipped" and left behind. (In bygone times the decoupling was done on the move; the rest of the train did not stop.)
   • 1960 February, “Talking of Trains: The vanishing slip-coach”, in Trains Illustrated, page 72:

     Slip-coach workings on the Western Region, the last stronghold of this practice, are now reduced to two daily - at Didcot off the 7.0 a.m. Weston-super-Mare-Paddington; and at Bicester (Saturdays excepted) off the 5.10 p.m. Paddington-Wolverhampton.

   • 1960 October, “Talking of Trains: The last of the slip coach”, in Trains Illustrated, page 577:

     Friday, September 9, saw the last of the slip coach in Great Britain; the location was Bicester, and the train was the 5.10 p.m. from Paddington to Wolverhampton, which from September 12 began to stop there instead.

Synonyms

• slip carriage

Translations

coach at the end of a long-distance train which carries passengers for an intermediate destination

• Irish: cóiste inscoite m