fourth class meaning: definition, quotations

fourth-class

adjalso spelled fourth-class

US A former class of mail consisting mostly of heavier printed matter.

Was it once stated that fourth class carriages no longer existed? But I have travelled fourth class in Jugoslavia and also on the C.F.A.E. in Algeria on the line from Oran to Colomb Bechar.1945 July and August, John Gibbons, “Thirty Years of The Railway Magazine”, in Railway Magazine, page 229:

noun

A (former) class of mail in the United States and Canada.

Rail transport, Railways, Transport A class of rail travel formerly found in some countries.

[…] Mr. S. C. Hawtrey writes that when he knew the Moscow-Kazan Railway (then under British management) in 1913, it was a regular practice in Russia to paint the exterior of first class coaches blue, second class yellow, third class green, and fourth class, where it still survived, brown.1946 May and June, “Notes and News: Russian Coach Colours”, in Railway Magazine, pages 184–185:
[…] up in front the third and fourth class passengers were making a babel of noise as they either detrained or entrained together with their large families and strange collection of parcels, bundles and earthenware jars.1958 February 23, Arthur F. Beckenham, “A Journey in the Belgian Congo”, in Railway Magazine, page 93: