For the opening of the railway on 1st July 1873 twelve of these four-wheel carriages were delivered from the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co., of Saltley in Birmingham.  They were made up of three separate compartments, each designed to carry ten people (whereas today it is more common to accommodate eight in each compartment).  The “A” series consisted of eleven compartment carriages and one first class saloon (A.12).  Rakes commonly ran in sets, from 1881 a policy of close-coupling the four-wheelers into pairs was embarked upon which later formed the basis of the “pairs” series being two four-wheelers mounted on  a bogie underframe.  Details for each individual vehicle can be found by clicking the links on the left of the panel below, each article is accompanied by a rendering in a number of conjectural liveries and lining details which are open to debate (!):-