Class 185 a good train?

[bramling]

Problem is that then you would lose the window alignment, which on the original layout is 100% perfect. In the original layout not one seat is misaligned to a window.

If they were to do that, they'd have been better building them with 8 bodyside windows rather than 9, and spacing accordingly.

Which takes us back to the units having been built too short, as the intention was to fit as much seating as possible into the unit. I appreciate there were political and financial constraints however.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Which takes us back to the units having been built too short, as the intention was to fit as much seating as possible into the unit. I appreciate there were political and financial constraints however.

True. The advantage of modern seat designs is that the backs are thinner and of a more sensible shape[1], so what was a tightly-crammed unit can be turned into quite a comfortable one even if you don't change the layout of the seats, simply by replacing them with new ones.

[1] The original 158 seat design discriminated somewhat against the heavier-built male, who can't comfortably sit with knees almost pointing together in the gap provided!