Pullman car

“ The Pullman car has fortunately come to make railway travelling in
America endurable. Apart from other considerations, the inevitable stove
is better managed. You are thoroughly warmed,---occasionally, it is
true, parboiled. But there is at least freedom from the sulphurous
atmosphere which pervades the ordinary car, with its two infernal
machines, one at either end. In addition, the Pullman cars have more
luxurious fittings, and are hung on smoother springs. ”

“ As the Pullman car was the first sleeping car to be installed for regular service in England, so credit should be given to Colonel Mann for affording the first sleeping car for public service ever operated on the Continent. ”

“ With the realization constantly before him that the most perfect service could be given only by the most radically improved equipment and the widest extension of this company's activities, Mr. Pullman identified the early years of organization with a development of the passenger car to a degree of comfort, convenience, safety, and luxury that passed popular comprehension. Nothing was too good for the Pullman car ”

“ The Pullman tourist sleeping car, which you can find on all through trains of the different railroads throughout the United States, are to the traveler of moderate means what the Pullman car is to the millionaire traveler. They are designed for the comfort and convenience of the traveling public to whom the expenditure of a dollar more or less is a matter of moment, and who cannot afford or do not care for the small extra show and tinsel of the Pullman sleeping car, but whose only desire is to make their journey pleasant, comfortable and safe. ”

“ As soon as anything goes wrong with a Pullman car it is at once sent into the shops for repair, and soon comes out in apple pie order. You may see the Pullman cars all over this country where there is a steel road, and other countries have their eyes on the mof late, and in the near future it will be possible to sleep in a Pullman car whether you are traveling in England, France, Sweden or China. They are a good thing and are sure to be pushed or rather pulled along. ”

“ Pullman service has revolutionized the method of travel. Night has been abolished, the sense of distance has been annihilated; fatigue has been reduced to a minimum. In the oldest districts of the east, along the valleys of western rivers, on the wide-spread plains, among the remote peaks of the Rockies, in the deserts of the great southwest, the Pullman car, served by the same trained employees, furnishes the same comforts, and gives the same nights' repose. ”

“ From this small beginning he continued to develop his ideas for comfort and safety in railway travel, till Pullman cars are now known all over the world. The Pullman palace-car company, of which he was president, was organized in 1867, and it now operates over 1,400 cars on more than 100,000 miles of railway.
In 1887 he designed and established the system of “vestibuled trains,” which virtually makes of an entire train a single car. ”

“ Until the Pullman sleepers were introduced into Britain, the sight of a car resting on eight wheels was unprecedented, as no one thought of doubting the entire security from danger of a carriage with only four points of support. Indeed, the conservative Briton saw no more real necessity for a railway carriage having eight wheels than for a horse to have more than four legs. ”

“ This first sleeping car was, as was later the first Pullman car, an adaption of an ordinary day coach to sleeping requirements. It was divided into four compartments in each of which three bunks were built against one side of the car, and in the rear of the car were provided a towel, basin, and water. No bed clothes were furnished and the weary passengers fully dressed reclined on rough mattresses with their overcoats or shawls drawn over them, doubtless marveling the while at the fruitfulness of modern invention. ”

“ It is difficult to enumerate the countless little details that are constantly incorporated into Pullman car construction. The berth light has been frequently changed to embody some new idea to improve its convenience and efficiency. The coat hanger, and the mirror in the upper berth are minor details, but their convenience is attested by their constant use by passengers. In the washrooms the design of the wash basins has been frequently altered to afford a more convenient resting place for the toilet articles unpacked from the traveler's bag. ”

“ As the train came to a solemn pause in a deep cutting a number of us gathered together in the warm and cosy Pullman, the ne plus ultra of railway cars, far surpassing in comfort and luxury an English or Continental first-class carriage, though not adorned as are the Italian cars with those abominations of the sterner sex—tidies for the head to rest against. ”

“ It is remarkable that at this early date the two features of the Pullman car which characterize it today—the features of safety and luxury—should have been so clearly defined.
It is human nature to accept each step forward as a new standard and it is characteristically American to refuse to accept an inferior article as soon as one superior is available, even if at greater cost. The "Pioneer" and its successors established such a standard, and immediately those accustomed and able to afford the increased rate required by the greater investment in the car, gladly and thankfully accepted it ”

“ But in the early fifties these very inconveniences fired the imagination of a young traveler who had bought a ticket on a night train between Buffalo and Westfield, and in his alert mind was inspired, as he tossed sleepless in his bunk, the first vision of a car that would revolutionize the railroad travel of the world and of a system that would present to the traveling public a mighty organization whose first purpose would be to contribute safety, convenience, luxury and a uniform and universal service from coast to coast. ”

“ Pullman, realizing the handicap of existing conditions to the full enjoyment of the various types of cars which he had established, set himself to the solving of the problem by devising a perfect system for constructing continuous trains and at the same time providing sufficient flexibility in the connecting passage ways to allow for the motion of the train, particularly when rounding curves. ”

“ To give this service 7,500 cars of the Pullman Company are operated over one hundred and thirty-seven railroads, or a total of 223,489 miles of track, reaching practically every point in the country from which or to which a person might desire to travel. To operate these cars an army of over ten thousand car employees are required, while seven thousand more are employed to keep the cars in repair, and maintain them in a clean and sanitary condition. ”

“ It is interesting, in passing, to consider the fact that up to the development of the Pullman car, night trains were patronized exclusively by men, for no woman would have considered subjecting herself to the inconvenience and lack of privacy of the ordinary sleeping car. The development of the Pullman car and Pullman service made continuous day and night travel practical for women and children ”

“ The Mann car was developed to suit European railroads and European wants. A Belgian company was organized to introduce sleeping cars by contracts with railroad companies, somewhat like those of the Pullman Company in America. The Mann cars which were put in service in the United States between Boston and New York in 1883 were divided into eight compartments, some accommodating two persons, some four. ”

“ To the Pullman Company, accordingly, must be accorded the credit of first supplying to the public the service of meals on board a train. The success of the "President" led to the immediate construction of the "Western World" and its sister car "Kalamazoo." These cars, however, must not be confused with the dining car which was later developed from the "hotel car" by the Pullman Company, and to which the "hotel cars" rapidly gave place. ”

“ You have none of you ever heard of a second-class railway carriage—didn’t know that such things were made. You want a first-class Pullman car reserved for each two of you. Some of you have seen an omnibus in the distance, and have wondered what it was used for. To suggest that you should travel in such a plebeian conveyance, is to give you a shock that takes you two days to recover from. You expect a private carriage, with a footman in livery, to take you through the mountains. You, all of you, must have the most expensive places in the theatre. ”

“ In a corner of the great yards at a track end stands a little yellow car, smaller than many of our interurban trolley cars, the paint peeling from the boards that have seen the changing seasons of half a century. It is old number "9," not the earliest, but one of the early Pullmans. Perhaps there are nights, when the roar of the machines is stilled, that the ghosts of a long-past day once again walk up and down the narrow aisles, strangers to the age of steel.
The car ready for the interior fittings. The floor is of monolith construction
Interior work. ”

“ I also find as I emerge from the narrow passageway, which is an unavoidable nuisance in all Pullman cars, the genial, good-natured, and good-looking sleeping-car conductor, Miles H. Suter, who has charge of the three Pullman sleepers that are on the train.
“Mr. Suter,” I said, “the Pullman people have given us a fine train.”
“Yes,” he replied. “There are no more substantial or more comfortable cars in the Pullman service than these. In one of them a person can ride many hundreds of miles and not become fatigued. You will find the motion of these cars very agreeable and easy. ”

“ It is natural to think of the Pullman Company as housed in some miraculous manner in the cars which it operates, as a company which expends its restless existence in untiring travel from state to state. ”

“ Until within the last fifteen or twenty years we had but a single class of passenger cars in America, as the emigrant trains on a few of the trunk lines were hardly to be considered by travelers, but the invention of the palace and sleeping-coaches (generally coupled with the name of Pullman, their inventor) , has given us two classes which are virtually as distinct as are the first and second of a continental railway. Hardly a train runs on any road of consequence without a Pullman car attached, and a seat may be had in this vehicle on payment of an extra fee. ”

“ In 1880 the Pullman Company erected the most extensive car-works in the world at Pullman, fourteen miles south of Chicago; and, besides its extensive output of Pullman cars and freight equipment, it has built for railway companies large numbers of passenger coaches. The employees now number about 5,000, and an idea of the capacity and resources of the shops may be obtained from the fact that one hundred freight cars, of the kind known as flat cars, have been built in eight hours. ”

“ One of the most interesting elements in the history of the Pullman car and the Pullman Company is the story of imitation and competition which for a period after the foundation of the parent company thrived and later disappeared. ”

“ Nothing can surpass the comfort and luxury of the Pullman cars, unless it be the perfected Pullman that is called the Vestibule Train. Six or seven carriages, connecting one with another, allow of your moving about freely over a length of some hundred yards. Dining-room, sleeping car, drawing-room car, smoking-room, library, bath-room, lavatory, the whole fitted up in the most luxurious style. What can one desire more? It is a hotel on wheels. It is your appartement, in which you whirl from New York to Chicago in twenty-four hours. ”

“ Pullman's faith in the success of the "Pioneer" type of car is illustrated by the fact that due to its increased height and breadth the dimensions of station platforms and bridges at the time of its construction would not permit its passage over any existing railroad. ”

“ Pullman Cars of another kind, providing sleeping accommodation for night journeys, are also in use on the Midland line, and they are fitted up with the same thoughtful regard to comfort as the Parlour Car. ”

“ It may be a combination of both; a system or organization instituted for the accomplishment of a duty or work beneficial to a community. A great railroad affords such a service. Greater in its scope than any railroad, the Pullman Company provides a more vast, intricate, and complete service to the people of the United States, a service unequaled in all the world.
Pullman sleeping car, latest design, with outline drawing showing how the car is supplied with light, water, and heat
A study of the scope and ramifications of the Pullman operations deserves more than passing comment ”

“ However, when criticism has been exhausted it is an undeniable fact that the American Pullman cars are more comfortable and considerably cheaper than the so-called compartiments de luxe of European railways. ”

“ The dreaded journey to New York becomes a mere holiday excursion in his delightful coaches, and, by the way, he will soon have a through line from Chicago to New York, in which a man need never leave his place from one city to the other.
The year 1867 marks the incorporation of Pullman's Palace Car Company, for the purpose of the manufacture and operation of sleeping cars. At the time of incorporation George M. Pullman owned all of the sleeping cars on the Michigan Central Railroad, Great Western [Canada] Railroad, and the New York Central Railroad lines, a grand total of forty-eight cars. ”