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Title: The Story of the Pullman Car
Author: Husband, Joseph
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Story of the Pullman Car" ***
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THE STORY OF THE
PULLMAN CAR
[Illustration: GEORGE MORTIMER PULLMAN
1831-1897]
The Story of the
Pullman Car
BY
JOSEPH HUSBAND
Author of "America at Work" and "A Year in a Coal-Mine."
_ILLUSTRATED_
[Illustration]
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1917
Copyright
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1917
Published May, 1917
W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO
To
George Mortimer Pullman
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Of the many books from which information was drawn for the preparation
of this volume the author wishes to make particular acknowledgment to
_The Modern Railroad_, by Mr. Edward Hungerford, to the article "Railway
Passenger Travel," by Mr. Horace Porter, published in _Scribner's
Magazine_, September, 1888; and to _Contemporary American Biography_,
as well as to the many newspapers and magazines from whose files
information and extracts have been freely drawn.
J. H.
Chicago, April, 1917
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I The Birth of Railroad Transportation 1
II The Evolution of the Sleeping Car 19
III The Rise of a Great Industry 39
IV The Pullman Car in Europe 61
V The Survival of the Fittest 73
VI The Town of Pullman 89
VII Inventions and Improvements 99
VIII How the Cars are Made 123
IX The Operation of the Pullman Car 133
Index 159
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
George Mortimer Pullman _Frontispiece_
One of the earliest types of American passenger car 8
First locomotive built for actual service in America 9
Early passenger cars 11
American "Bogie" car in use in 1835 12
Cars and locomotive of 1845 14
Car in use in 1844 20
Car of 1831 21
Midnight in the old coaches 23
"Convenience of the new sleeping cars" 24
Early type of sleeping car 28
J. L. Barnes, first Pullman car conductor 32
One of the first cars built by George M. Pullman 42
The car in the daytime 42
Making up the berths 42
George M. Pullman explaining details of car construction 46
One of the first Pullman cars in which meals were served 52
The first parlor car, 1875 58
Interior of Pullman car of 1880 64
The rococo period car 68
More ornate interiors 74
The latest Pullman parlor car 76
First step in building the car 84
Fitting the car for steam and electricity 90
Work on steel plates for inside panels 90
Preparing the steel frame for an upper section 94
Sand blasting brass trimmings 94
Machine section, steel erecting shop 100
Fitting up the steel car underframe 100
Making cushions for the seats 104
Making chairs for parlor cars 104
Making frame end posts 106
Assembling steel car partitions 106
The vestibule in its earliest form 108
Axle generator for electric lighting 110
The sewing room, upholstering department 114
Forming steel parts for interior finish 118
Forming steel shapes for interior framing 118
Punching holes for screws 124
Shaping steel panelling 124
Riveting the underframe 126
Steel end posts in position 126
Type of early truck 128
Modern cast-steel truck 128
Ready for the interior fittings 130
Interior work 130
Pullman sleeping car, latest design 134
Front end of a private car dining room 136
Rear end of a private car dining room 136
Robert T. Lincoln, ex-President 138
Bedroom of a private car 142
Observation section of a private car 142
Modern Pullman steel sleeping car ready for the night 146
Modern Pullman steel sleeping car during the day 146
Cleaning and disinfecting the Pullman car 152
John S. Runnells, President 156
THE STORY OF THE PULLMAN CAR
CHAPTER I
THE BIRTH OF RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION
Since those distant days when man's migratory instinct first prompted
him to find fresh hunting fields and seek new caves in other lands,
human energy has been constantly employed in moving from place to place.
The fear of starvation and other elementary causes prompted the earliest
migrations. Conquest followed, and with increasing civilization came the
establishment of constant intercourse between distant places for reasons
that found existence in military necessity and commercial activity.
For centuries the sea offered the easiest highway, and the fleets
of Greece and Rome carried the culture and commerce of the day to
relatively great distances. Then followed the natural development
of land communication, and at once arose the necessity not only for
vehicles of transportation but for suitable roads over which they might
pass with comfort, speed, and safety. Over the Roman roads the commerce
of a great empire flowed in a tumultuous stream. Wheeled vehicles
rumbled along the highways--heavy springless carts to carry the
merchandise, lightly rolling carriages for the comfort of wealthy
travelers.
The elementary principle still remains. The wheel and the paved way of
Roman days correspond to the four-tracked route of level rails and the
ponderous steel wheels of the mighty Mogul of today. In speed, scope,
capacity, and comfort has the change been wrought.
The English stagecoach marked a sharp advance in the progress of
passenger transportation. With frequent relays of fast horses a fair
rate of speed was maintained, and comfort was to a degree effected by
suspension springs of leather and by interior upholstery.
An interesting example of the height of luxury achieved by coach
builders was the field carriage of the great Napoleon, which he used
in the campaign of 1815. This carriage was captured by the English at
Waterloo, and suffered the ignominious fate of being later exhibited
in Madame Tussaud's wax-work show in London. The coach was a model of
compactness, and contained a bedstead of solid steel so arranged that
the occupant's feet rested in a box projecting beyond the front of the
vehicle. Over the front windows was a roller blind, which, when pulled
down admitted the air but excluded rain. The _secrétaire_ was fitted up
for Napoleon by Marie Louise, with nearly a hundred articles, including
a magnificent breakfast service of gold, a writing desk, perfumes,
and spirit lamp. In a recess at the bottom of the toilet box were two
thousand gold napoleons, and on the top of the box were places for the
imperial wardrobe, maps, telescopes, arms, liquor case, and a large
silver chronometer by which the watches of the army were regulated. In
such quarters did the great emperor jolt along over the execrable roads
of Eastern Europe.
The stagecoach was established in England as a public conveyance
early in the sixteenth century, and soon regular routes were developed
throughout the country. Now for the first time a closed vehicle
afforded travelers comparative comfort during their journey, and in the
stagecoach with its definite schedule may be seen the early prototype of
the modern passenger railroad. For three centuries the stagecoach slowly
developed, and its popularity carried it to the continent and later
to America. But by a radical invention transportation was suddenly
transformed.
As early as the middle of the sixteenth century, and actually
contemporaneous with the inception of the stagecoach, railways, or
wagon-ways, had their origin. At first these primitive railways were
built exclusively to serve the mining districts of England and consisted
of wooden rails over which horse-drawn wagons might be moved with
greater ease than over the rough and rutted roads.
The next step forward was brought about by the natural wear of the
wheels on the wooden tracks, and consisted of a method of sheathing the
rails with thin strips of iron. To avoid the buckling which soon proved
a fault of this innovation, the first actual iron rails were cast in
1767 by the Colebrookdale Iron Works. These rails were about three feet
in length and were flanged to keep the wagon wheels on the track.
For a number of years this simple type of railroad existed with little
change. Over it freight alone was carried, and its natural limitations
and high cost, compared with the transportation afforded by canals,
seemed to hold but little promise for future expansion.
As early as 1804 Richard Trevithick had experimented with a steam
locomotive, and in the ten years following other daring spirits
endeavored to devise a practical application of the steam engine to the
railway problem. But in 1814 George Stephenson's engine, the "Blucher,"
actually drew a train of eight loaded wagons, a total weight of thirty
tons, at a speed of four miles an hour, and the age of the steam
railroad had begun.
The first railroad to adopt steam as its motive power was the Stockton
& Darlington, a "system" comprising three branches and a total of
thirty-eight miles of track. On the advice of Stephenson, horse power
was not adopted and several steam engines were built to afford the
motive power. This road was opened on September 27, 1825, and preceded
by a signalman on horseback a train of thirty-four vehicles weighing
about ninety tons departed from the terminus with the applause of the
amazed spectators.
The novelty of this new venture soon appealed so strongly to popular
fancy that a month later a passenger coach was added, and a daily
schedule between Stockton & Darlington was inaugurated.
This first railway carriage for the transportation of passengers was
aptly named the "Experiment." Consisting of the body of a stagecoach it
accommodated approximately twenty-five passengers, of which number six
found accommodations within, while the others perched on the exterior
and the roof of the vehicle. The fare for the trip was one shilling, and
each passenger was permitted to carry fourteen pounds of baggage.
This early adaption of the stagecoach to the rapidly developed demand
for passenger service necessitated the coinage of a new terminology, and
it is not surprising that many words of stagecoach days remained. Among
these "coach" is still preserved, and in England the engineer is still
called the "driver"; the conductor, "guard"; locomotive attendants in
the roundhouse, "hostlers," and the roundhouse tracks the "stalls."
In 1829 a prize of five hundred pounds ($2,500) for the best engine was
offered by the directors of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway which was
to be opened in the following year, and at the trial which was held in
October three locomotives constructed on new and high-speed principles
were entered. These were the "Rocket" by George and Robert Stephenson,
the "Novelty" by John Braithwaite and John Erickson, and the
"Sanspareil" by Timothy Hackworth. Due to the failure of the "Novelty"
and the "Sanspareil" to complete the trial run and the successful
performance of the "Rocket" in meeting the terms of the competition,
the Stephensons were awarded the prize and received an order for seven
additional locomotives. It is interesting to learn that on its initial
trip the "Rocket" attained the unprecedented speed of twenty-five miles
an hour.
In 1819 Benjamin Dearborn, of Boston, memorialized Congress in regard
to "a mode of propelling wheel-carriages" for "conveying mail and
passengers with such celerity as has never before been accomplished,
and with complete security from robbery on the highway," by "carriages
propelled by steam on level railroads, furnished with accommodations
for passengers to take their meals and rest during the passage, as
in packet; and that they be sufficiently high for persons to walk in
without stooping." Congress, however, failed to call this memorial from
the committee to which it was referred.
[Illustration: _One of the earliest types of an American passenger
car, drawn by Peter Cooper's experimental locomotive, "Tom Thumb." The
tubular boilers of the locomotive were made from gun barrels._]
The development of the locomotive in America approximates its
development in England. As early as 1827 four miles of track were laid
between Quincy and Boston for the transportation of granite for the
Bunker Hill Monument. Horses furnished the power, and the cars were
drawn over wooden rails fastened to stone sleepers.
[Illustration: _"The Best Friend," the first locomotive built for actual
service in America, hauling the first excursion train on the South
Carolina Railroad, January 15, 1831._]
But reports of the wonders of the new English railways soon crossed
the water, and in 1828 Horatio Allen was commissioned by the Delaware &
Hudson Canal Company to purchase four locomotives in England for use
on its new line from Carbondale to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Of these
locomotives three were constructed by Foster, Rastrick, and Company, of
Stourbridge, and one by George Stephenson. The first engine to arrive
was the "Stourbridge Lion" and on the ninth of August, 1829, it was
placed on the primitive wooden rails and, to the amazement of the
spectators, Allen opened the throttle and in a cloud of smoke and
hissing steam moved down the track at the prodigious speed of ten miles
an hour.
One of the first railways in America was the old Mohawk & Hudson, which
was chartered by an act of the New York legislature on April 17, 1826.
The commissioners who were entrusted with the duty of organizing the
company met for the purpose in the office of John Jacob Astor, in New
York City, on July 29, 1826. One of their first official acts was to
appoint Peter Heming chief engineer and send him to England to examine
as to the feasibility of building a railroad. Mr. Heming's salary was
fixed at $1,500 a year. In due course of time he returned from his
European visit of observation and reported in favor of the project
under consideration. Notwithstanding that he was absent six months, the
expenses of his trip, charged by him to the company, were only $335.59.
The road first used horse power and later on adopted steam for use in
the day time, retaining horses, however, for night work. It was not
deemed safe to use steam after dark. At first the trains consisted
of one car each, in construction closely resembling the old-fashioned
stagecoach.
The road connected the two towns of Albany and Schenectady, and was
seventeen miles in length, but the portion operated by steam was only
fourteen miles in length, horses being used on the inclined plane
division from the top of one hill to the top of another.
[Illustration: _Early passenger cars, designed after the then prevalent
type of horse coach. These cars were part of the train that ran on the
formal opening of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad (the first link of the
New York Central System) on July 5, 1831._]
Three years later a prize of $4,000 was offered by the Baltimore & Ohio
Company for an American engine, and the following year a locomotive
constructed by Davis and Gastner won the award by drawing fifteen tons
at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. In 1832, Matthias W. Baldwin,
founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, designed his
first locomotive, "Old Ironsides," for the Philadelphia, Germantown &
Morristown Railroad; and soon after his second locomotive, the "E. L.
Miller," was put in service on the South Carolina Railroad.
[Illustration: _One of the first important improvements made by America
in passenger cars was the introduction of the "bogie," or truck; the
short curves of the American roads compelling the abandonment of the
English type of four-wheeled car with rigid axles. The illustration
shows a "bogie" car used on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1835._]
The first passenger service to be put in regular operation in America
must be credited to the Charleston & Hamburg Railroad in the late fall
of 1830. The following year construction was begun on the Boston &
Lowell Railroad, and in the same year a passenger train, previously
mentioned, was put in service between Albany and Schenectady on the new
Mohawk & Hudson Railroad.
The journal of Samuel Breck of Boston, affords an interesting glimpse of
the conditions of contemporary railroad travel:
_July 22, 1835._ This morning at nine o'clock I took passage on a
railroad car (from Boston) for Providence. Five or six other cars
were attached to the locomotive, and uglier boxes I do not wish to
travel in. They were made to stow away some thirty human beings, who
sit cheek by jowl as best they can. Two poor fellows who were not
much in the habit of making their toilet, squeezed me into a corner,
while the hot sun drew from their garments a villainous compound
of smells made up of salt fish, tar, and molasses. By and by just
twelve--only twelve--bouncing factory girls were introduced, who
were going on a party of pleasure to Newport. "Make room for the
ladies!" bawled out the superintendent. "Come gentlemen, jump up on
top; plenty of room there!" "I'm afraid of the bridge knocking
my brains out," said a passenger. Some made one excuse, and some
another. For my part, I flatly told him that since I had belonged to
the corps of Silver Grays I had lost my gallantry and did not intend
to move. The whole twelve were, however, introduced, and soon made
themselves at home, sucking lemons, and eating green apples.... The
rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant, the polite and the
vulgar, all herd together in this modern improvement in traveling
... and all this for the sake of doing very uncomfortably in two
days what would be done delightfully in eight or ten.
[Illustration: _Cars and locomotive in use on the Camden & Amboy
Railroad in 1845. The cars were heated by wood stoves, the glass sash
was stationary, and ventilation was possible only from a wooden-panelled
window which could be raised a few inches._]
To follow further the rapid development of the railroad in America would
require many volumes. As the canal building fever had seized the fancy
of the American public in preceding years, so a similar enthusiasm
was instantly kindled in the new railroad, and railroad travel became
immediately the most popular diversion. In a relatively few years a web
of track carried the smoking locomotive and its rumbling train of cars
throughout the country. Crude, and lacking almost every convenience
of the passenger coach of the present day, the early railway carriage
served fully its new-born function. To the latter half of the century
was reserved the development of those refinements which have rendered
travel safe and comfortable, and the perfecting of those vast
organizations that have placed in American hands the railroad supremacy
of the world.
CHAPTER II
THE EVOLUTION OF THE SLEEPING CAR
The history of improved railway travel may be said to date from the year
1836, when the first sleeping car was offered to the traveling public.
In the years which followed the actual inception of the railroad in
the United States, railway travel was fraught with discomfort and
inconvenience beyond the realization of the present day. Travel by
canal boat had at least offered a relative degree of comfort, for here
comfortable berths in airy cabins were provided as well as good meals
and entertainment, but the locomotive, by its greatly increased speed
over the plodding train of tow mules, instantly commanded the situation,
and as the mileage of the pioneer roads increased, travel by boat
proportionately languished.
The first passenger cars were little better than boxes mounted on
wheels. Over the uneven track the locomotive dragged its string of
little coaches, each smaller than the average street car of today. From
the engine a pall of suffocating smoke and glowing sparks swept back
on the partially protected passengers. Herded like cattle they settled
themselves as comfortably as possible on the stiff-backed, narrow
benches. The cars were narrow and scant head clearance was afforded
by the low, flat roof. From the dirt roadbed a cloud of dust blew in
through open windows, in summer mingled with the wood smoke from the
engine. In winter, a wood stove vitiated the air. Screens there were
none. By night the dim light from flaring candles barely illuminated the
cars.
[Illustration: _Car in use in 1844 on the Michigan Central Railroad.
Interesting as showing the rapid improvement in passenger coaches and
how soon they approached the modern type of car in general appearance._]
In addition to these physical discomforts were added the dangers
attending the operation of trains entirely unprotected by any of the
safety devices now so essential to the modern railroad. No road boasted
of a double track; there was no telegraph by which to operate the
trains. The air brake was unknown until 1869, when George Westinghouse
received his patent. The Hodge hand brake which was introduced in 1849
was but a poor improvement on the inefficient hand brake of the earlier
days. The track was usually laid with earth ballast and the rail joints
might be easily counted by the passengers as the cars pounded over them.
Add to these discomforts the necessity of frequent changes from one
short line to another when it was necessary for the passengers each time
to purchase new tickets and personally pick out their baggage, due to
the absence of coupon tickets and baggage checks, and the joys of the
tourist may be realized.
[Illustration: _Car constructed by M. P. and M. E. Green of Hoboken, New
Jersey, in 1831 for the Camden & Amboy Railroad._]
As early as 1836 the officers of the Cumberland Valley Railroad of
Pennsylvania installed a sleeping-car service between Harrisburg and
Chambersburg. 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. As time
went on other similar cars, with berths arranged in three tiers on one
side of the car, were adopted by various railroads, and occasional but
in no manner fundamental improvements were made. Candles furnished the
light, and the heat was supplied by box stoves burning wood or sometimes
coal. For a number of years these makeshift cars found an appreciative
patronage, and temporarily served the patrons of the road.
[Illustration: _Midnight in the old coaches previous to the introduction
of the Pullman sleeping car. A night journey in those days was something
to be dreaded._]
In the next ten years similar "bunk" cars were adopted by other
railroads, but improvements were negligible and their only justification
existed in the ability of the passengers to recline at length during the
long night hours. The innovation of bedding furnished by the railroad
marked a slight progress, but the rough and none too clean sheets and
blankets which the passengers were permitted to select from a closet
in the end of the car, must have failed even in that day to give
satisfaction to the fastidious.
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.
George Mortimer Pullman was born in Brockton, Chautauqua County, New
York, March 3, 1831. His early schooling was limited to the country
schoolhouse, and at the age of fourteen his education was completed and
he obtained employment at a salary of $40 a year in a small store in
Westfield, New York, that supplied the neighboring farmers with their
simple necessities. But the occupation of a country storekeeper failed
to fix the restless mind of the boy, and three years later he packed his
few possessions and moved to Albion, New York, where an older brother
had developed a cabinet-making business.
[Illustration: Harpers Weekly MAY 28, 1859.
CONVENIENCE OF THE NEW SLEEPING CARS.
(_Timid Old Gent, who takes a berth in the Sleeping Car, listens._)
BRAKEMAN. "Jim, do you think the Millcreek Bridge safe to-night?"
CONDUCTOR. "If Joe cracks on the steam, I guess we'll get the Engine and
Tender over all right. I'm going forward!"]
Here Pullman found a wider field for his natural abilities, and at the
same time acquired a knowledge of wood working and construction that
was soon to afford the foundation for larger enterprises. During the ten
years that followed there were times when the demands on the little shop
of the Pullman brothers failed to afford sufficient occupation for the
two young cabinet makers, and the younger brother, eager to improve his
opportunities, began to accept outside contracts of various sorts. The
state of New York had begun to widen the Erie Canal which passed through
Albion. Clustered on its banks were numerous warehouses and other
buildings, and the young man soon proved his ability to contract
successfully for the necessary moving of these buildings back to the
new banks of the canal. The venture was successful. An opportunity
fortuitously created was seized, and not only was an increased
livelihood secured, but the wider scope of this new activity gave the
young man an increased confidence in himself on which to enlarge his
future activities.
It was during these years that George M. Pullman experienced his first
night travel and the hardships of the sleeping car accommodations. As
Fulton and Watt and Stephenson, in the crude steam engine of their
time, saw the locomotive and marine engine of today, so in this bungling
sleeper George M. Pullman saw the modern sleeping car and the vast
system he was in time to originate. In his mind a score of ideas were
immediately presented and on his return to Albion he discussed the
possibility of their amplification with Assemblyman Ben Field, a warm
friend in these early days.
The contracting business had increased Pullman's field of observation,
it had stimulated his invention, it had accustomed him to the management
of men. When the widening of the Erie Canal had been accomplished, the
field for his new vocation was practically eliminated; and it was but
natural that the ambition of youth could not be satisfied to return to
the cabinet-making business. Westward lay the future. In the new town
of Chicago, which had in so few years grown up at the foot of Lake
Michigan, young men were already building world enterprises. Chicago,
named from the wild onion that grew in the marsh lands about the winding
river, offered promise of greatness. Its romantic growth seized the
imagination of the youthful Albion contractor.
Naturally his first thought was to profit by his contracting experience,
and again a happy chance favored him. Built on the low land behind the
sand dunes and south of the sluggish river Chicago suffered from a lack
of proper drainage. Mud choked the streets; cellars were wells of water
after every rain. In 1855, the year of his arrival, Pullman made a
contract to raise the level of certain of the city streets. It was a
bold undertaking, but his confidence knew no hesitation, and the work
was satisfactorily accomplished. Other contracts followed, and in a
short time Pullman had built himself a substantial reputation and had
raised a number of blocks of brick and stone buildings, including the
famous Tremont House, to the new level.
Chicago in 1858 was a town of 100,000 population. Here Cyrus H.
McCormick had built his reaper factory on the banks of the river. Here
R. T. Crane was laying the small foundation for the mighty industry of
future years. Here Marshall Field and Levi Z. Leiter were rising junior
partners in their growing business, and here the future heads of the
meat-packing industry were developing their mighty business. To the
country boy from a New York village, its muddy streets and rows of frame
and brick buildings savored of a metropolis; in its naked newness he
sensed the vital energy that was so soon to place it among the cities of
the world.
[Illustration: Early type of sleeping car. The traveler rarely removed
more than his outer clothing, and oftentimes kept his boots on]
But even during these years of untiring activity the thought of a
radical improvement in railway car construction was constantly working
in the brain of the young contractor, and in 1858 he determined to give
his ideas the practical test. The story of this first application of
these revolutionizing ideas to the railroad coaches then in use is best
told in the words of Leonard Seibert, who was at that time an employee
on the Chicago & Alton Railroad.
In 1858 Mr. Pullman came to Bloomington and engaged me to do the
work of remodelling two Chicago & Alton coaches into the first
Pullman sleeping-cars. The contract was that Mr. Pullman should make
all necessary changes inside of the cars. After looking over the
entire passenger car equipment of the road, which at that time
constituted about a dozen cars, we selected Coaches Nos. 9 and 19.
They were forty-four feet long, had flat roofs like box cars, single
sash windows, of which there were fourteen on a side, the glass in
each sash being only a little over one foot square. The roof was
only a trifle over six feet from the floor of the car. Into this
car we got ten sleeping-car sections, besides a linen locker and two
washrooms--one at each end.
The wood used in the interior finish was cherry. Mr. Pullman
was anxious to get hickory, to stand the hard usage which it was
supposed the cars would receive. I worked part of the summer of
1858, employing an assistant or two, and the cars went into service
in the fall of 1858. There were no blue-prints or plans made for the
remodelling of these first two sleeping-cars, and Mr. Pullman and I
worked out the details and measurements as we came to them. The two
cars cost Mr. Pullman not more than $2,000, or $1,000 each. They
were upholstered in plush, lighted by oil lamps, heated with box
stoves, and mounted on four-wheel trucks with iron wheels. There was
no porter in those days; the brakeman made up the beds.
In the construction of these first sleeping cars Mr. Pullman introduced
his invention of upper berth construction by means of which the upper
berth might be closed in the day time and also serve as a receptacle for
bedding. Other improvements and devices were worked out and tested, and
from these first experiments were drawn the detailed plans from which
the first cars entirely constructed by him were made. Although without
technical training himself, Mr. Pullman was quick to recognize the
necessity of skilled assistance to express and improve his embryonic
ideas. To this end he soon established a small workshop, and employing
a number of skilled mechanics set himself to the mastery of the problems
which confronted him.
Another interesting personal reminiscence of the first days of the
Pullman car is afforded by J. L. Barnes, who was in charge of the first
car run from Bloomington to Chicago over the Chicago & Alton.
Mr. Pullman had an office on Madison Avenue just west of LaSalle
Street and I boarded with a family very close to his office. I used
to pass his office on my to meals, and having read in the paper
that he was working on a sleeping car, one day I stopped in and made
application to Mr. Pullman personally for a place as conductor. I
gave him some references and called again and he said the references
were all right and promised me the place. I made my first trip
between Bloomington, Illinois, and Chicago on the night of September
1, 1859. I was twenty-two years old at the time. I wore no uniform
and was attired in citizen's clothes. I wore a badge, that was all.
One of my passengers was George M. Pullman, inventor of the sleeping
car.... All the passengers were from Bloomington and there were
no women on the car that night. The people of Bloomington, little
reckoning that history was being made in their midst, did not come
down to the station to see the Pullman car's first trip. There was
no crowd, and the car, lighted by candles, moved away in solitary
grandeur, if such it might be called.... I remember on the first
night I had to compel the passengers to take their boots off before
they got into the berths. They wanted to keep them on--seemed afraid
to take them off.
The first month business was very poor. People had been in the habit
of sitting up all night in the straight back seats and they did not
think much of trying to sleep while traveling.... After I had made
a few trips it was decided it did not pay to employ a Pullman
conductor, and the car was placed in charge of the passenger
conductor of the train which carried the sleeping car, and I was out
of a job.
The first Pullman car was a primitive thing. Beside being lighted
with candles it was heated by a stove at each end of the car.
There were no carpets on the floor, and the interior of the car was
arranged in this way: There were four upper and four lower berths.
The backs of the seats were hinged and to make up the lower berth
the porter merely dropped the back of the seat until it was level
with the seat itself. Upon this he placed a mattress and blanket.
There was no sheets. The upper berth was suspended from the ceiling
of the car by ropes and pulleys attached to each of the four corners
of the berth. The upper berths were constructed with iron rods
running from the floor of the car to the roof, and during the day
the berth was pulled up until it hugged the ceiling, there being
a catch which held it up. At night it was suspended about half-way
between the ceiling of the car and the floor. We used curtains in
front and between all the berths. In the daytime one of the sections
was used to store all the mattresses in. The car had a very low deck
and was quite short. It had four wheel trucks and with the exception
of the springs under it was similar to the freight car of today. The
coupler was "link and pin;" we had no automatic brakes or couplers
in those days. There was a very small toilet room in each end, only
large enough for one person at a time. The wash basin was made of
tin. The water for the wash basin came from the drinking can which
had a faucet so that people could get a drink.
[Illustration: J. L. Barnes, the first Pullman car conductor, whose
reminiscences of that early period are quoted in this book]
The two remodeled Chicago & Alton coaches were instantly accepted by the
public, but despite their popularity, and the popularity of a third
car which followed them, their originator considered them merely as
experiments and in 1864 plans for the first actual Pullman car were
completed which gave promise of a car radically different in its
construction, appointments, and arrangement from anything heretofore
attempted. Into this car Pullman resolutely cast the small capital that
he had accumulated; in its success he placed the unswerving confidence
that characterized his clear vision and indomitable determination to
succeed. This model car was built in Chicago on the site of the present
Union Station in a shed belonging to the Chicago & Alton Railroad, at
a cost of $18,239.31, without its equipment, and almost a year was
required before it was ready for service. Fully equipped and ready for
service it represented an investment of $20,178.14. The "Pioneer" was
the name chosen for its designation, and with the faith that other cars
would soon be required the letter "A" was added, an indication that even
Mr. Pullman's vision failed to anticipate the possible demand beyond the
twenty-six letters of the alphabet.
Never before had such a car been seen; never had the wildest flights of
fancy imagined such magnificence. Up to the building of the "Pioneer"
$5,000 had represented the maximum that had ever been spent on a single
railroad coach. It was unbelievable that this $18,000 investment could
yield a remunerative return. The "Pioneer" had improved trucks with
springs reinforced by blocks of solid rubber; it was a foot wider and
two and a half feet higher than any car then in service, the additional
height being necessary to accommodate the hinged upper berth of Mr.
Pullman's invention. Combined with its unusual strength, weight, and
solidity, its beauty and the artistic character of its furnishing and
decoration were unprecedented. At one stride an advance of fifty years
had been effected.
A further proof of Mr. 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. It is said that these necessary changes were hastened in the
spring of 1865 by the demand that the new "Pioneer" be attached to the
funeral train which conveyed the body of President Lincoln from Chicago
to Springfield. In this way one railroad was quickly adapted to the new
requirements, and a few years later when the "Pioneer" was engaged to
take General Grant on a trip from Detroit to his home town of Galena,
Illinois, another route was opened to its passage.
Other roads soon made the necessary alterations to permit the passage of
the "Pioneer" and its sister cars which were now under construction. The
"Pioneer" had, by this time, won wide recognition and popularity, and a
few months later was put in regular service on the Alton Road. So
well were its dimensions calculated by Mr. Pullman that the "Pioneer"
immediately became the model by which all railroad cars were measured,
and to this day practically the only changes in dimensions have been in
increased length.
To secure the continuous use of the "Pioneer" and other similar cars an
agreement was effected between Mr. Pullman and the Chicago & Alton which
marked the beginning of the vast system which today embraces the entire
country and makes possible continuous and luxurious travel over a large
number of distinct railroads. Thus in the space of a few years George M.
Pullman not only evolved a type of railroad car luxurious and beautiful
in design and embracing in its construction patents of great originality
and ingenuity, but, in addition, evolved the rudimentary conception of
a system by which passengers might be carried to any destination in cars
of uniform construction, equipped for day or night travel, and served
and protected by trained employees whose sole function is to provide for
the passengers' safety, comfort, and convenience.
CHAPTER III
THE RISE OF A GREAT INDUSTRY
The "Pioneer" had cost Mr. Pullman $20,000. Compared with the finest
sleeping cars previously in use, it was clearly evident that a new
development in luxurious travel had been accomplished. The best ordinary
sleeping cars were considered expensive at $4,000. There was no more
comparison between the "Pioneer" and its predecessors in comfort than
in cost. But it remained to be seen what the public would think of it;
whether they preferred luxury, comfort, and real service, to hardship,
discomfort, and no service at a lower cost.
The new cars were larger, heavier, and more substantial than any
previously constructed. Increased safety was one of their advantages.
Moreover, they were far more beautiful from every aspect--artistically
painted, richly decorated, and furnished with fittings for that day
remarkable for their elaborate nature. They were universally admired,
and quickly became the topic of interest among the traveling public. 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; while those whose nature usually inclines to haggling when
the purse is touched, were convinced of the worth of the innovation
by the assurance against disaster which the weight and strength of the
Pullman cars assured.
The next car constructed by Mr. Pullman, after the "Pioneer" cost
$24,000. And very soon after several additional cars were built at
approximately the same cost, and were put in operation on the Michigan
Central Railroad. Here was the great test. In these luxurious carriages
and in the verdict of the traveling public rested the future of Mr.
Pullman's project. The question simply resolved itself to this: Did the
public want them? In the old sleeping cars a berth had cost considerably
less than it was necessary to charge for one in the new Pullman cars.
In the mind of the inventor there was no question as to the verdict. The
railroad authorities were equally certain the other way. They did not
think the public would pay the extra sum.
There was but one way to decide, and Mr. Pullman made the suggestion
that both Pullman cars and old style sleeping cars be operated on the
same train at their respective prices. The results would show.
What happened is best described in the words of a contemporary writer.
Mr. Pullman suggested that the matter be submitted to the decision
of the traveling public. He proposed that the new cars, with their
increased rate, be put on trains with the old cars at the cheaper
rate. If the traveling public thought the beauty of finish, the
increased comfort, and the safety of the new cars worth $2 per
night, there were the $24,000 cars; if, on the other hand, they were
satisfied with less attractive surroundings at a saving of 50 cents,
the cheaper cars were at their disposal. It was a simple submission
without argument of the plain facts on both sides of the issue--in
other words, an application of the good American doctrine of
appealing to the people as the court of highest resort.
The decision came instantly and in terms which left no opening for
discussion. The only travelers who rode in the old cars were those
who were grumbling because they could not get berths in the new
ones. After running practically empty for a few days, the cars in
which the price for a berth was $1.50 were withdrawn from service,
and Pullmans, wherein the two-dollar tariff prevailed, were
substituted in their places, and this for the very potent reason,
that the public insisted upon it. Nor did the results stop there.
The Michigan Central Railway, charging an extra tariff of fifty
cents per night as compared with other eastern lines, proved an
aggressive competitor of those lines, not in spite of the extra
charge, but because of it, and of the higher order of comfort and
beauty it represented. Then followed a curious reversal of the usual
results of competition. Instead of a levelling down to the cheaper
basis on which all opposition was united, there was a levelling
up to the standard on which the Pullman service was planted and on
which it stood out single-handed and alone.
Within comparatively a short period all the Michigan Central's rival
lines were forced by sheer pressure from the traveling public
to withdraw the inferior and cheaper cars and meet the superior
accommodations and the necessarily higher tariff. In other words,
the inspiration of that key-note of vigorous ambition for excellence
of the product itself, irrespective of immediate financial
returns, which was struck with such emphasis in the building of the
"Pioneer," and which ever since has rung through all the Pullman
work, was felt in the railroad world of the United States at that
early date, just as it is even more commonly felt at the present
time. At one bound it put the American railway passenger service in
the leadership of all nations in that particular branch of progress,
and has held it there ever since as an object lesson in the
illustration of a broad and far-reaching principle.[1]
[1]: _Contemporary American Biography_, p. 260.
[Illustration: One of the first cars built by George M. Pullman]
[Illustration: Interior of the car. (1) the car in the daytime showing
wood stove and fuel box; (2) making up the berths. There were no end
divisions, and a thin curtain only separated the berths]
[Illustration]
It will probably be interesting at this point to describe with some
detail the Pullman car of this early period. In the _Daily Illinois
State Register_, Springfield, May 26, 1865, appears an interesting
description of one of the new Pioneer type of cars just installed on the
Chicago & Alton Railroad.
To the train on the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad, which
passed up at noon today, was attached one of Pullman's improved and
beautiful sleeping carriages, containing a party of excursionists
from the Garden City [Chicago], to whom the trip was complimentarily
extended by the company of the road, and among whom was George M.
Pullman, Esq., of Chicago, the patentee of the car. This carriage,
which we had the pleasure of inspecting during the stay of the train
at our depot, we found to be the most comfortable and complete in
all its appurtenances, and decidedly superior in many respects to
any similar carriage we have ever seen. It is fifty-four feet in
length by ten in width, and was built at a cost of $18,000,
the painting alone costing upwards of $500. Besides the berths,
sufficient in number to accommodate upwards of a hundred passengers,
there are four state rooms formed by folding doors, and so
constructed with the berths that the whole can easily be thrown into
one apartment. When the car is not used for sleeping purposes, as in
the day, every appearance of a berth or a bed is concealed, and in
their stead appear the most comfortable of seats.
Westlake's patent heating and ventilating apparatus is applied
so that a constant current of pure and pleasant air is kept in
circulation through the car. In fact, it was useless to attempt to
enumerate, in so brief a notice, even a few of the many improvements
which have been introduced by the patentees into the carriage,
rendering it as they have, superior to any that we have ever
inspected. To one fact, however, we will refer in this connection,
as especially conducive to the comfort of the traveling public,
viz., that a daily change of linen is made in the berths of this new
carriage, thereby keeping them constantly clean and comfortable, and
rendering the car much more attractive than are similar carriages
where this is neglected. As we are informed by Mr. Pullman that
these cars will hereafter be run on the St. Louis and Chicago line,
we would especially direct the attention of travelers to the fact,
and recommend them to investigate the matter of our notice for
themselves.
Exactly how "upwards of a hundred passengers" could have been
accommodated is hardly clear, but the enthusiasm of the reporter,
fired perhaps by the luxury of clean linen for each berth each day,
may account for this apparent exaggeration. In the _Illinois Journal_,
another Springfield paper, of May 30, the reporter reduces the estimate
of the capacity to fifty-two and comments with perhaps more detail on
the decorative features of the car.
We are reminded by a prophecy which we heard some three years
since--that the time was not far distant when a radical change
would be introduced in the manner of constructing railroad cars; the
public would travel upon them with as much ease as though sitting in
their parlors, and sleep and eat on board of them with more ease and
comfort than it would be possible to do on a first-class steamer. We
believed the words of the seer at the time, but did not think they
were so near fulfillment until Friday last, when we were invited
to the Chicago & Alton depot in this city to examine an improved
sleeping-car, manufactured by Messrs. Field & Pullman, patentees,
after a design by George M. Pullman, Esq., Chicago.
The writer describes his impressions of the interior. The absence of
"mattresses or dingy curtains" by day, the beauty of the window curtains
"looped in heavy folds," the "French plate mirrors suspended from the
walls," as well as the "several beautiful chandeliers, with exquisitely
ground shades" hanging from a ceiling "painted with chaste and elaborate
design upon a delicately tinted azure ground," while the black walnut
woodwork and "richest Brussels carpeting" make the picture complete. It
is small wonder that the Pullman car excited admiration, and that its
first appearance in the Illinois towns was probably recorded by similar
editorial appreciation.
[Illustration: George M. Pullman explaining details of car construction]
But perhaps one of the most interesting insights into the condition
which the new Pullman cars were so quick to remedy, is found in the
_Chicago Tribune_, June 20, 1865. After a veritable eulogy on the
elegance and comfort of the Pullman car, the writer draws the following
enviable contrast.
It leaves to others to ticket the actual transit, so many miles for
so much money, and comes in with its cars as the Ticket Agent of
Comfort, sells you coupons to rest and ease by the way. So you wish
to go through to New York or Baltimore, yourself, Belinda, Biddy
and the baby, baskets, bundles, etc? You think of changes of cars
by night, and rushes for seats for your party by day, of seats foul
with the scrapings of dirty boots, of floors flowing with saliva,
of coarse faces and coarse conversation, of seats you cannot recline
in, of the ordinary discomforts of a long journey by rail!
It is small wonder that the new Pullman cars found an appreciative
welcome!
In 1866 five Pullman sleeping cars were put in operation on the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and late in May an excursion for several
hundred invited guests was given from Chicago to Aurora, Illinois, and
return. The new cars were named, "Atlantic," "Pacific," "Aurora," "City
of Chicago," and "Omaha." Occasioned by the comforts which this new
equipment disclosed a current newspaper remarked:
Pullman is a benefactor to his kind. 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. In the operation of these cars he was ably assisted by his
brother, A. B. Pullman, who held the office of general superintendent.
In forming the Pullman Company, the founder aspired to establish an
organized system by which the traveling public might be enabled to
travel in luxurious cars of uniform construction, adapted to both night
and day requirements, without change between distant points, and over
various distinct lines of railroads. In addition, such a service would
provide the heretofore unknown asset of responsible employees to whose
care might be entrusted women, children, and invalids. It was a service
that was sorely needed, and indication pointed to its prompt acceptance
by the railroads and the public.
In the same year a remarkable achievement in railroad travel was
accomplished. Due to the different gauge tracks in use by the several
railroads connecting Chicago and New York, the continuous passage of
a car from one city to the other was impossible. But in 1867 the
standardization of the gauge was effected by the completion of a third
rail on the Great Western [Canada] Railroad, and to mark this opening
of through communication, an excursion was arranged from Chicago to New
York on the "Western World," the newest Pullman "hotel" sleeping car.
At this point it is interesting to note that the first "hotel car," the
"President," was put in service by the Pullman Company in 1867 on the
Great Western Railroad of Canada. The hotel car was a combination car,
in reality a sleeping car with a kitchen built in at one end. The meals
were served at tables placed in the sections. 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.
The _Detroit Commercial Advertiser_ of June 1, 1867, comments:
But the crowning glory of Mr. Pullman's invention is evinced in his
success in supplying the car with a cuisine department containing
a range where every variety of meats, vegetables and pastry may be
cooked on the car, according to the best style of culinary art.
The following bill of fare illustrates the variety of edibles provided
on this celebrated excursion.
MENU
OYSTERS
Raw 50
Fried and Roast 60
COLD
Beef Tongue, Sugar-cured Ham,
Pressed Corned Beef, Sardines 40
Chicken Salad, Lobster Salad 50
BROILED
Beefsteak, with Potatoes 60
Mutton Chops, with Potatoes 60
Ham, with Potatoes 50
EGGS
Boiled, Fried, Scrambled, Omelette
Plain 40
Omelette with Rum 50
_Chow-Chow, Pickles_
Welsh Rarebit 50
French Coffee 25
Tea 25
The excursion party left Chicago on April 8, 1867, and comfortably
established in the "Western World" arrived in Detroit the following day.
At Detroit the river was crossed on the "great iron ferry boat," the
first company of passengers that ever passed from Chicago to Canada
without change of cars. On the new third rail of the Great Western, a
speed of forty miles was often maintained for considerable periods. "The
cars were decorated with American and British flags, symbolizing the
union which is destined to take place between the United States and
Canada. A train has just rolled by, the engine and passenger cars on
the broad gauge, and freight cars from the East on the narrow gauge." So
goes the journal of one of the passengers.
Large crowds visited the train at Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica, and
at Albany, Erastus Corning telegraphed Commodore Vanderbilt that the car
must be taken to New York, if possible, and the gauge of the Harlem road
be taken for that purpose. The party arrived in New York on April 14.
One of the purposes of sending the "Western World" to New York was that
it might transport on its return trip, Dr. J. C. Durant, vice president
of the Union Pacific Road, and a committee of directors, to examine a
portion of their new transcontinental line which the contractors were
ready to turn over. A member of the party describes the call on Dr.
Durant in his office on Nassau Street and refers to the office as
"probably the finest in New York, beautiful with paintings and statuary,
and enlivened with the singing of birds."
[Illustration: One of the first Pullman cars in which meals were served]
Following the "Western World," the "hotel cars" were promptly put in
service and regular through service was established between Chicago
and eastern points. The new "City of Boston" and "City of New York"
surpassed even the "Western World" in magnificence and were popularly
reported to have exceeded $30,000 each in cost. These cars were known as
"hotel cars" for the reason that each contained all the requirements
for a protracted journey. The main body of the car was occupied by
the berths and seats and at one end a kitchen and pantry provided
the culinary service. The dining car, devoted entirely to restaurant
purposes, was a second step which soon followed. The first dining car
personally designed by Mr. Pullman was named the "Delmonico," and was
operated on the Chicago & Alton in 1868.
But it was in 1869 that the Pullman car made perhaps its greatest
advance in the interest and confidence of the public for in that year
the Union Pacific, building westward from the Missouri River at Omaha,
met the Central Pacific, which built from San Francisco eastward.
By their union a line was established between the two coasts of the
continent, a slender thread of track which stretched for 1,848 miles
through a practically uninhabited country. Almost simultaneously with
the completion of the road there was put upon the rails one of the
most superb trains ever turned out of the Pullman shops. Its journey to
California and its reception there were in the nature of a progressive
ovation. From that time forth the great population of the Pacific coast
knew no train for long distance travel save a Pullman train, and would
hear of no other. When people from California reached Chicago on their
way eastward, the road over which Pullman cars ran got their patronage,
and roads over which other cars were operated did not. Newspapers and
magazines were awakened to studies of the Pullman cars and the Pullman
system, and scores of printed pages were filled with the marvels of a
journey to the Pacific Ocean which was nothing more than a six days'
sojourn in a luxurious hotel, past the windows of which there constantly
flowed a great panorama of the American continent, thousands of miles in
length and as wide as the eye could reach. Illustrated magazine articles
which appeared telling the story of a trip to California had as many
pictures of Pullman interiors as they had of the big trees or the
Yosemite Valley. The effect of all this was far reaching. The great
Pennsylvania line abandoned its own service and adopted the Pullman, and
many other lines made application for inclusion in the Pullman system.
In May, 1870, the first through train from the Atlantic to the Pacific
crossed the continent, engaged for a special excursion by the Boston
Board of Trade, many distinguished Bostonians being numbered among
the passengers. During the trip a daily newspaper entitled the
_Trans-Continental_ was published. In the issue of May 31, published on
the sixth day out, as the train was crossing the summit of the Sierra
Nevadas, an account is given of a meeting of the passengers in the
smoking car, and resolutions passed by them were printed. The Hon. Alex
H. Rice presided at the meeting, and the resolutions were offered by
Frank H. Peabody, a Boston banker, and seconded by Robert B. Forbes,
another Bostonian.
_Resolved_, That we, the passengers of the Boston Board of Trade
Pullman excursion train, the first through train from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, having now been a week _en route_ for San Francisco,
and having had, during this period, ample opportunity to test
the character and quality of the accommodations supplied for
our journey, hereby express our entire satisfaction with the
arrangements made by Mr. George M. Pullman, and our admiration
of the skill and energy which have resulted in the construction,
equipment and general management of this beautiful and commodious
moving hotel.
_Resolved_, That we return our cordial thanks to Mr. Pullman for the
very great pains taken by him beforehand to make the present journey
safe and pleasurable; that we recognize the complete success which
has followed all his efforts, and that we extend to him our sincere
wishes for such a degree of prosperity to attend all his operations
as will be proportionate to his merits as one of the most
public-spirited, sagacious, and liberal railroad men of the present
day.
_Resolved_, That we take pleasure in witnessing, as we journey from
point to point, through all the Western States, the many evidences
of Mr. Pullman's enterprise and the extent of his operations in the
cars which we meet belonging to the Pullman Company, attached to the
regular trains for the use of the public, or appropriated especially
to private excursion parties, and we earnestly hope that there will
be no delay in placing the elegant and homelike carriages upon the
principal routes in the New England States, and we will do all in
our power to accomplish this end.
The list of passengers on this notable excursion included:
Hon. Alex. H. Rice
Maj. Geo. P. Denny
Hon. J. M. S. Williams
James W. Bliss
Edward W. Kingsley
Frederick Allen and wife
H. S. Berry
Miss Josie W. Bliss
Hon. John B. Brown and wife
E. W. Burr and son
John L. Bremer
Geo. D. Baldwin and wife
Miss L. E. Billings
Chas. W. Brooks
M. S. Bolles
Alvah Crocker and wife
Mrs. F. Cunningham
Thomas Dana, Mrs. Thomas Dana, 2nd, Miss M. E. Dana
Mrs. Geo. P. Denny
Arthur B. Denny
Cyrus Dupee and wife
John H. Eastburn and wife
Robert B. Forbes and wife
Joshua Reed
J. S. Fogg
Mrs. E. E. Poole
Misses Farnsworth
Robert O. Fuller
J. Warren Faxon
N. W. Farwell and wife
Miss Mary E. Farwell
Miss Evelyn A. Farwell
Curtis Guild and wife
C. L. Harding and wife
Miss N. Harding
Edgar Harding
J. F. Hunnewell
J. F. Heustis
W. S. Houghton and wife
D. C. Holder and wife
Miss C. Harrington
A. L. Haskell and wife
Miss Alice J. Haley
J. M. Haskell and wife
H. O. Houghton and wife
John Humphrey
Hamilton A. Hill and wife
Benjamin James
C. F. Kittredge
Mrs. C. A. Kinglsey
Miss Addie P. Kinglsey
Miss Mary L. Kinglsey
Chas. S. Kendall
Miss M. C. Lovejoy
John Lewis
Jas. Longley and wife
Geo. Myrick and wife
Col. L. B. Marsh and wife
C. F. McClure and wife
Joseph McIntyre
Sterne Morse
Fulton Paul
F. H. Peabody, wife and servant
Miss F. Peabody
Miss L. Peabody
Master F. E. Peabody
Rev. E. G. Porter
Miss M. F. Prentiss
James W. Roberts and wife
Wm. Roberts
S. B. Rindge and wife
Master F. H. Rindge
J. M. B. Reynolds and wife
John H. Rice
Hon. Stephen Salisbury
M. S. Stetson and wife
D. R. Sortwell and wife
Alvin Sortwell
F. H. Shapleigh
T. Albert Taylor and wife
E. B. Towne
Lawson Valentine and wife
Miss Valentine
Rev. R. C. Waterston and wife
A. Williams
Dr. H. W. Williams and wife
N. D. Whitney and wife
Judge G. W. Warren
Geo. A. Wadley and wife
Henry T. Woods
Mrs. J. M. S. Williams
Miss E. M. Williams
Miss C. T. Williams
J. Bert Williams
In the next few years the Pullman Palace Car Company established
manufacturing shops in Detroit, and in 1875 a new "reclining-chair car,"
the first parlor car to be operated in the United States, was presented
by Mr. Pullman to the public. For several years parlor cars of Pullman
design and construction had been in satisfactory use on the Midland
Railway, between London and Liverpool, England. The success of these
cars promptly resulted in the construction of the "Maritana" for use in
the United States. The chairs in this new car were heavily and richly
upholstered and revolved on a swivel, on the same principle as the
chairs in the parlor car of the present day.
[Illustration: The first parlor car, 1875]
CHAPTER IV
THE PULLMAN CAR IN EUROPE
A modest paragraph in many American newspapers in February, 1873,
announced the momentous news that England was soon to enjoy the novelty
of Pullman transportation--"The Midland Railway Company has entered
into a contract with the Pullman Palace Car Company for the equipment of
their road with American drawing room and sleeping coaches." The Midland
was the longest and most important of three great railroads which
started from London and extended to Liverpool and Scotland, transversing
the rich central counties of England where so few years before the coach
horn had sounded through the hills. The adoption of Pullman equipment by
this prominent railroad was singularly conspicuous.
On February 15, 1873, at a "half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of
the Midland Railway," Mr. Pullman personally addressed the officers of
the company. It appears that Mr. Allport, the general manager of the
Midland Railway, on a recent visit to the United States and Canada,
had been greatly impressed by the accommodations afforded the traveling
public, and had made a particular study of the Pullman cars. Acting on
his advice the directors invited Mr. Pullman to England to appear
before the meeting. Mr. Pullman proposed that the Midland Company should
authorize the speedy construction of carriages particularly adapted
to their requirements, and a motion was carried to authorize the
construction of such cars on the basic Pullman principles. It was
accordingly agreed that eighteen new cars should be constructed in
America and shipped to England in August and that Mr. Pullman should
return to England at that time to superintend their installation.
By the contract the Pullman Company agreed to furnish as many
dining-room, drawing-room, and sleeping cars as the demands of the
traveling public required, without charge to the road, its compensation
being in the extra fare paid for use of the cars. The road, on the other
hand, received its compensation in the free use of the cars, in return
for which it guaranteed to the Pullman Company the exclusive right
to furnish such cars for fifteen years. As in America, the porters,
conductors, cooks, waiters and other attendants were hired by the
Pullman Company. Two night trains and two day trains of American cars
only, were to be put on at the start. The contract was not exclusive,
and other English railroads watched with interest the working out of the
American innovation.
The popularity of the Pullman car at home and abroad quite naturally
inspired a host of imitators. Among the first was Colonel W. D. Mann,
the proprietor of the _Mobile Register_, who designed a sleeping
car embodying certain characteristic Pullman features, but divided
transversely into compartments or "boudoirs," each entered directly from
the sides, and connected by a private door permitting the passage of
the attendant to and through the several compartments. Each compartment
contained seats for four persons, which by night could be made up into
beds. The design was ingenious but failed in many vital respects to
compete with the greater comfort and roominess of the Pullman car.
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. Mann's "Boudoir Cars" were installed on the Vienna
and Munich line in 1873, and their favorable reception and popularity
unquestionably went far to better the trying conditions of European
travel.
[Illustration: Interior of a Pullman car used about 1880. Here a
tendency to ornamentation begins to show. Note the low-backed seats]
Designed in America and introduced on the continent, the Mann boudoir
cars enjoyed an almost unoccupied field in Europe, with the exception
of England, where the railway managers had adopted the Pullman cars as
their standard. 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. The seats were arranged transversely instead of longitudinally.
Due to their smaller passenger capacity a higher rate was necessarily
charged than for Pullman accommodations.
But exclusive possession of the Continental field was not left
to Colonel Mann undisputed, for during the year 1875 Mr. Pullman
established a shop at Turin, Italy, and under the direction of a Mr.
A. Rapp, who was sent on from the Detroit works, a number of cars were
constructed for use on through trains on the principal Italian lines.
The following testimonial presented to Mr. Rapp at the conclusion of the
work by the men who had been employed expresses, although in none too
polished English, their appreciation of the work that had been provided
them.
TO
PULLMAN ESQUIRE, THE GREAT INVENTOR
OF THE
SALOON COMFORTABLE CARRIAGES
AND
MASTER RAPP THE CIVIL ENGINEER, DIRECTOR
OF THE MANUFACTURE OF THE SAME
THE
ITALIAN WORKMEN
BEG TO UMILIATE.
Welcome, Welcome Master Pullman
The great inventor of the Saloon Carriages,
Italy will be thankful to the man
For now and ever, for ages and ages.
To Master Rapp we men are thankful.
Cause of his kindness and adviser sages,
Our hearts of true gladness is full:
And we shall remember him for ages.
Should Master Pullman ever succeed
To continue is work in Italy
What we wish to him indeed,
We hope to be chosen
To finish the work and work as a man,
To show our gratitude to Master Pullman.
FINO AND HIS FRIENDS.
_Turin_, 10 January 1876.
The appearance of the new Pullman cars in England created immediate and
favorable comment, for not only were the cars radical in the service
which they afforded, but their construction, following the advanced
principles of American car building, offered sharp contrast to the less
modern cars of English construction. From the most gorgeous first-class
carriage down to the dumpiest begrimed coal car, all British railway
conveyances rested on four iron wheels, placed in the position where
Artemus Ward located the legs of the horse--one at each corner. 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.
Under arrangements with the Great Northern Railway, Pullman "dining
room" carriages were put in service on November 1, 1879, between Leeds
and King's Cross Station, London. Luncheon and dinner were served and
the menu included "soups, fish, entrees, roast joints, puddings and
fruits for dessert," a truly English bill of fare. The reception of this
innovation is described by the _London Telegraph_, which concluded a
comment on the dining car with this friendly suggestion:
If the British public can be brought to give this new
refreshment-car system, just inaugurated by the Great Northern
Railway, a fair trial, there will be another traveling infliction,
besides Dyspepsia and Discontent, which will be speedily laid in the
Red Sea. I mean the ghost of Ennui. Luncheon or dinner on board a
Pullman palace-car will surely banish Boredom from railway journeys.
By the year 1879 Pullman sleeping and drawing room cars were in
operation on three English and three Scotch lines, and at the invitation
of the Italian Government, cordially responded to by the Pullman Palace
Car Company, sleeping cars, similar to those in use in England on the
Midland and Great Northern railways were put in weekly service between
Brindisi and Bologna, in connection with the steamers of the Peninsula
and Oriental Company. At Bologna the service was taken up by the Belgian
"Societe Anonyme des Wagons Lits"--an interesting recognition by a
foreign government of the superiority of the American railway carriages.
[Illustration: The rococo period. Extravagance of florid ornamentation
and design]
[Illustration]
In 1888 "The Pullman Limited Express" began regular service on the
London, Brighton, & South Coast Line, between Victoria Station and
Brighton. Single cars of the American pattern had been running on this
line for five or six years, but in this train for the first time the
English public was offered a "solid Pullman" equipment. Four cars
comprised the train--a parlor car, a drawing room car with ladies'
boudoir and dining room, a restaurant car, and a smoking car, while a
compartment at each end of the train next to the luggage compartment
was provided for servants. On this train electric lighting was first
employed by the Pullman Company for illuminating railroad cars--a
particular feature that received wide advertisement.
The London, Brighton, & South Coast Railway opened the New Year of
1889 with the first "vestibule" train that had ever greeted the eyes of
foreign travelers. Three Pullman cars, "Princess," "Prince," and "Albert
Victor," were regularly attached to a train of three first-class cars.
The Pullman cars were built at the Pullman plant at Detroit, Michigan,
and were shipped in sections to England. By this innovation Yankee
genius again demonstrated its leadership, and the travelers of a distant
nation profited by the genius and energy of an American inventor.
The Pullman Company, Limited, of England, existed as a property of
the American company until the year 1906, when, due to the enormous
development of the system in the United States, it was deemed wise for
economic reasons to separate the two companies. But today the British
company still proudly bears the name of Pullman, a tribute to the
inventive genius, untiring energy, and wide vision of a country boy of
the new world.
CHAPTER V
THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
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. The success of the Pullman car necessarily brought
competition. It was wholesome that such competition should arise. If
a car more convenient than the car of Mr. Pullman's invention could
be devised, it was right that it should be given the test of public
opinion. That no car constructed along different basic lines survived,
established the right of the Pullman car to its preeminence. That
certain cars patterned after Mr. Pullman's basic ideas, and in
most cases directly infringing on his patents, received a degree of
popularity again reflects creditably to the Pullman car.
Distinct from the innovations afforded by Pullman car construction, the
universal service of the Company afforded the public a new service of
equal value. Where formerly it was necessary for the traveler to change
from car to car whenever and wherever one railroad connected with
another line, the uniform service of the Pullman Company created a new
and infinitely more desirable situation, for it was now possible to
travel without inconvenience or interruption between practically any two
points in the country regardless of the number of different railroads
over whose tracks the traveler's ticket required passage. By
competition, the value of such a service was tested; tested alike by the
individual railroads and their patrons. That each and every competing
company ultimately retired from the field, and that practically every
railroad in the United States has today contracted with the Pullman
Company for its standardized service, is tacit recognition to the worth
of the service rendered.
[Illustration: More ornate interiors. (1) early Pullman parlor car; (2)
old type Pullman sleeping car]
[Illustration]
There are still other reasons why the control of sleeping and parlor
service should be delegated to a single company. Due to the vast area
embraced by the boundaries of the United States and the wide range of
climate which these boundaries contain, there are many railroads which
require during certain months of the year a larger number of cars to
transport their through passengers than in others. Other roads require
an equally great number of sleeping and parlor cars during other months,
as for instance those roads which carry the winter tourists to the South
and Southwest in winter as opposed to the roads which feel the peak
of passenger travel in summer when the vacationists are headed for the
Atlantic coast resorts or the northwestern mountains. Again, there are
special occasions, like great conventions, when the railroads touching
the convention city must have hundreds of sleeping cars above their
normal needs.
Few railroads could afford to tie up capital in the cars required for
such brief periods of demand; it would be an economic fallacy to pass
the expense of the maintenance and constant replacement of such an
equipment on to the public. To meet this situation is the mission of the
Pullman Company.
Of the numerous sleeping car companies the Gates Sleeping Car Company
was perhaps the earliest. This car was named after Mr. G. B. Gates,
General Manager of the Lake Shore Road, and with the consolidation of
the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central in 1869, these cars,
previously only operated on the Lake Shore, were put in the New York,
Buffalo, Chicago service.
[Illustration: The latest Pullman parlor car, showing simplicity of
modern car decoration, combining quiet elegance with good taste and
comfort]
Among the various competitors of the Pullman Company, the Wagner Palace
Car Company, which succeeded, in 1865, the New York Central Sleeping Car
Company, and absorbed in 1869 the Gates Sleeping Car Company, developed
by far the widest and most formidable competition and continued its
service over the longest period. The underlying reasons for the strength
of this competition lay primarily in the fact that the Wagner cars
followed more closely the Pullman characteristics, and in fact the
infringement of certain basic Pullman patents by the Wagner Company
was a cause of frequent litigation over a period of many years. Webster
Wagner, the founder of the Wagner Palace Car Company, began his career
as a wagon maker. The first cars which he constructed had a single tier
of berths, and the bedding was packed away by day in a closet at the end
of the car. Commodore Vanderbilt backed Wagner and became interested in
his company, a connection which gave Wagner invaluable assistance and
a hold on the sleeping-car business of the lines controlled by the
Vanderbilt interests, a connection which enabled him for many years to
be a keen competitor of the Pullman Company.
Early in June, 1881, suit was brought by the Pullman Palace Car Company
against the New York Central Sleeping Car Company and Webster Wagner,
claiming $1,000,000 damages for infringement and use of patents in the
construction and use of Wagner sleeping coaches. The bill stated that
in 1870 the Wagner Company began building sleeping cars, and for several
years its coaches ran only on the New York Central Railroad and
its various branches. The company finding it impossible to build
satisfactory cars without using the Pullman patents, contracted with
the Pullman Company to use certain of its patented improvements. This
arrangement was made with the distinct understanding that the Wagner
Company was to run its cars only over the New York Central Railroad. For
five years this arrangement was satisfactorily carried out. But in
1875 the Pullman Company's contract with the Michigan Central Railroad
expired and the Wagner Company secured the contract to run the cars
between Detroit and Chicago, thus making a through connection for the
Vanderbilt lines between New York and Chicago.
By this new routing of the Wagner cars direct from New York to Chicago
and the elimination of the Pullman cars from the Chicago and Detroit
service, an opportunity offered for some other road to avail itself of
the Pullman service and effect a through Pullman service between New
York and Chicago.
The Erie was the road that grasped the opportunity. By arrangements
with the Baltimore & Ohio and several other roads, through Erie trains
between New York and Chicago, comprising Pullman hotel coaches, sleeping
cars and drawing room cars were put in service on November 1, 1875. A
circular published in Chicago announcing the new arrangement said:
From the first of November, the Pullman hotel and drawing room
coaches, for many years so popular on the Michigan Central line,
will be withdrawn from that route, and with new and increased
improvements will thereafter run exclusively on the Erie and Chicago
line, forming the first and only Pullman hotel coach line between
Chicago and New York.
The success of the new Erie Pullman coaches was immediately assured. The
hotel cars especially were a great attraction. These were divided into
two compartments, in one of which the kitchen was located, the other
compartment being utilized as a sleeping car. First-class meals,
including all manner of game and seasonable delicacies, were served on
movable tables placed in the sections. In fact, the _New York Tribune_,
in commenting on the new Pullman equipment, asked: "Should the Erie have
a monopoly of such comforts? Why does not Wagner imitate or improve upon
Pullman?"
These cars were nicknamed "French Flats."
All the modern conveniences of a first-class house are condensed
into one of these hotels on wheels. The beds at night are put away
to make room for spacious seats by day, between which a table is
placed, covered with damask cloths and napkins folded in quaint
devices, at which four may sit with ease. The whole car--a
Pullman--is luxuriously fitted up, and one end is partitioned into
a storeroom and kitchen; there is a smoking-room for lovers of the
weed, and a separate toilet room for ladies. As the porter of the
car blackens the boots, and there is a telegraph office at each
stopping place, the waggish question of "Where is the barber shop?"
is often made. But this may come, too, as last summer an excursion
party of ladies and gentlemen took a hair-dresser with them over the
Erie to Niagara Falls, and two or three ladies actually _had their
hair crimped_ while traveling thirty or forty miles an hour! At this
time, while game is plenty in the West, the Pullmans, with their
facilities, and two fast trains each way per day, are able to make a
bill of fare and serve it in a style which would cause Delmonico
to wring his hands in anguish. The service is on the European plan;
that is, you pay for what you order, and we give the prices of the
principal articles, to show at what a reasonable rate one can take
a superior meal of fifty or a hundred miles long: Prairie chicken,
pheasant, and woodcock, whole, $1; snipe, quail, golden plover and
blue-winged teal, each 75 cents; venison, 60 cents; chicken, whole,
75 cents; cold tongue, ham, and corned beef, 30 cents; sardines,
lobster, and broiled ham or bacon, 40 cents; mutton and lamb chops,
veal cutlets, or half a chicken, 50 cents; sirloin steak, 50 cents,
&c. Every traveler who has missed his dinner to catch a train will
rejoice in knowing that a warm meal awaits him at the cars, and that
he can wake up in the morning and choose his time for breakfast,
instead of bolting it down at the twenty minutes' convenience of the
railroad company.[2]
[2]: _New York Commercial Advertiser_, Nov. 30, 1875.
Some time prior to 1861 sleeping cars were being operated over the
Camden & Amboy and Baltimore & Ohio railroads. These cars were known as
"Knight" cars, after their designer, E. C. Knight. The "Knights" were
built at a cost of about $7,000, and were regarded as the handsomest
things on wheels. As in the bunk cars, all of which found their model in
the sleeping arrangements of the canal boat, the berths were only on
one side of the car and consisted of a triple tier of two double and one
single berth; an arrangement later changed to one double and two single
berths.
The Woodruff sleeping car also was designed about this time by T. T.
Woodruff, Master Car Builder of the Terre Haute & Alton Railroad. In
this car both sides of the car were utilized as in the Pullman car, and
the sleeping accommodations consisted of twelve sections, six on a
side. A company was formed to operate the Woodruff cars in 1871, with a
capital of $100,000.
The Flower Sleeping Car Company was another characteristic competitor.
This short-lived company was organized in 1882 in Bangor, Maine, with a
capital of $500,000. The seats in this new car were placed in the middle
instead of on the sides of the cars, thus leaving an aisle on each side
instead of one in the center. Claims were made that a freer circulation
of air would result, and a news item of the _Times_ further recommended
this unique construction as more convenient to families, the berths
being so arranged, side by side, that two could be made up into a double
bed.
Mann's Boudoir Car Company was incorporated in 1883, with a capital of
$1,000,000, and experienced considerable popularity due to their unique
arrangement, which has been described in a previous chapter.
In 1883 the Erie Railroad realized the long entertained ambition of
entering Chicago on its own rails. To accomplish this, the Erie had
leased the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad and built the Chicago
& Atlantic. Through connection was actually made May 15, on which date
freight traffic was begun.
The train by which the Erie inaugurated the passenger business over the
new trunk line was probably the most complete and elegant train ever to
that time constructed. All of the cars were of Pullman manufacture
and consisted of a baggage car, second-class coach, a smoking car, and
first-class coaches and sleepers that were "models of perfection and
beauty, as might be expected where the Pullman Company had _carte
blanche_ to produce the best possible." Each coach was lighted with the
new Pintsch lights. The smoking car deserves more than passing mention,
for it was the first one ever constructed of Pullman standard. The car
was equipped with upholstered easy chairs, and a "refreshment buffet"
moistened the throats of the smokers.
Early in 1889 the Pullman Company acquired the control of the Mann
Boudoir Car Company and the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company, including
the entire car equipment and plants. By this acquisition a long step
was taken for the unification of sleeping car service, and the further
development of a uniform and widely extended scope of operations.
For years the success of the Pullman Company's service had been too
generally acknowledged to escape the notice of enterprising railroad
men, and these two companies were fair examples of the numerous
competing companies that were organized. But the success of the
Pullman service was based on an idea of too wide conception ever to
be successfully imitated. The success of the company engendered
competition; its success resulted only in a comparison of service
injurious to the imitators. Behind all this lay the fundamental reason
for Pullman supremacy. Created to give a standardized service everywhere
for the convenience of travelers, it was quickly apparent that
competition was but a reversal to the old order--the more companies, the
less uniform service.
About a month previous, the Mann Boudoir Company and the Woodruff
Sleeping Car Company had joined hands and formed the Union Palace Car
Company. By the purchase of this combine the Pullman Company added about
15,000 miles of road to that already operated, and by that many miles
extended its through car service. The only remaining sleeping car
companies of any importance outside of the Pullman Company were the
Wagner Company, belonging to the Vanderbilts, and operated over the
Vanderbilt lines, and the Monarch Sleeping Car Company, which operated
entirely in the New England States with the exception of one Ohio line.
A newspaper of the time commented on the merger, and closed with the
verdict: "While this will add to the volume of the Pullman business, it
will also render the service upon the absorbed lines far more efficient
and satisfactory for the traveling public."
[Illustration: The first step in the building of the car. The center
construction in position, and the framework assembled]
In 1888, Mr. Pullman had put in operation his vestibule trains, which
immediately met with extraordinary favor and patronage. In a very few
days the Wagner Company also advertised a vestibule train and were
promptly met with an injunction holding the Wagner appliances to be
an infringement of the Pullman patent. After another hearing, the
injunction was superseded, the Wagner Company giving an unlimited bond,
signed by the Vanderbilts, to pay any damages ascertained by the courts.
After months occupied in taking the evidence of travelers, expert
mechanics, railroad officials, prominent citizens, and others, a final
hearing was had. The judges, owing to the vast interests involved and
the legal difficulties presented, took ample time for consideration,
but finally adhered to their first conclusion. The main feature of the
Pullman vestibule system was the Sessions patent, without which the
vestibule system was worthless. The court declared this invention to be
of the highest order of utility, not only as shown by the testimony in
the ease and the adoption of the patent by the principal railroads of
the country, but also by the acts of the Wagner Company in appropriating
the device, and in the tenacity with which they clung to it in the
courts under an immense bond for any damages to result, and so, in
April, 1889, the United States Circuit Court delivered its opinion in
favor of the Pullman Palace Car Company in its long and stubborn fight
with the Wagner Palace Car Company.
CHAPTER VI
THE TOWN OF PULLMAN
Like most other industries, the Pullman Palace Car Company felt the
effect of the financial depression immediately following 1873, but the
reaction followed, and on the resumption of specie payments in 1879
dawned a new era in the Company's history and a rapid expansion of
its business. To meet this expansion and to extend the business still
farther along the line of general car building, it became necessary to
enlarge the plant. The shops already established in St. Louis, Detroit,
Elmira, and Wilmington were unable to provide the volume required by
the increasing demand for the Company's output. It was evident that new
shops must be built on a larger and more comprehensive scale than any
that had gone before.
In 1879 the Chicago newspapers were alert to confirm the rumor that
George M. Pullman was planning to locate his new shops at Chicago.
The following year the rumor became fact and the question of the exact
location became of paramount interest.
Chicago with its central position with reference to the railway systems
of the continent, seemed the natural site, but there were weighty
objections, touching both finance and the matter of labor, to be urged
against building within the city limits proper. Sites were visited by
representatives of the Company at Hinsdale, Illinois, and Wolf Lake,
Indiana, but in April it was definitely announced that the works
would be located on the Illinois Central Railroad on the shore of Lake
Calumet. A Chicago newspaper commented on the decision of the Company as
follows:
A notable addition to Chicago's mercantile industry is to be the
extensive car works of the Pullman Palace Car Company, ground
for which is to be broken today. A larger establishment for
manufacturing purposes will not exist in the West, and while it will
contain all the latest and most improved mechanical appliances in
use, it will embody in its architecture grace and beauty that
is quite characteristic of the palace car. The works are to cost
$1,000,000; about 2,000 men are to be employed in them, and the
extended arrangement of machinery is to be moved by the Corliss
engine, one of the Centennial wonders, which has been purchased by
the Pullmans.
[Illustration: Fitting the car with steam pipes and electric conduits]
[Illustration: At work on the steel plates for inside finish panels]
An interesting personal reminiscence of this famous real estate
operation may be found in Frederick Francis Cook's _Bygone Days in
Chicago_.
Another "Pullman scoop" was of an extraordinary real-estate and
manufacturing interest when "negotiated"--the slang to be accepted
for once in its proper meaning. In the later seventies, besides
other duties, I had charge of the real-estate department of the
_Times_. It became known that the Pullman Company intended to build
a manufacturing town somewhere, but whether in the environs of
Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, or other western point, was for the
public an open question for many months--and, I dare say, for a time
was an unsettled proposition with the company itself, for St. Louis
offered large inducements in the way of land grants. What finally
turned the scales in favor of Chicago, according to Mr. Pullman's
declaration to me, was the more favorable climatic conditions
presented by Chicago. It was his contention that during the summer a
man could do at least ten per cent more work near Lake Michigan than
in the Mississippi Valley in the latitude of St. Louis.
During many disturbing weeks--for the whole real-estate market in
at least three cities waited on the decision--frequent announcements
were made that the directors of the company, or its committee on
site, had inspected this locality, or that, in the vicinity of one
city or another, and so the wearisome time went on. Many places were
visited about Chicago--some to the north, some on the Desplaines,
some in the neighborhood of the Canal, but somehow none near Calumet
Lake, a fact which finally aroused my suspicions. In the meantime,
unverifiable reports of large transactions in that locality floated
about in real-estate circles. Finally, I pinned down an actual sale
of large dimensions, with Colonel "Jim" Bowen as the ostensible
purchaser. That opened my eyes, for the colonel's circumstances at
this time put such a transaction on his own account altogether out
of the question.
Almost daily at this time Mr. Pullman was interviewed on the
situation by the real-estate newspaper phalanx--Henry D. Lloyd was
then in charge for the _Tribune_--but "nothing decided," was the
stereotyped reply. By and by I discovered that almost invariably if
I went at a certain hour, "Colonel Jim" would be largely in evidence
about the Pullman headquarters, with an air of doing a "land-office
business," and, as it turned out, he was actually doing something
very much like it. Slowly I picked up clue after clue, pieced this
to that, and one day felt in a position to say to Mr. Pullman that I
had located the site. He seemed amused, and laughingly replied that
he was pleased to hear it, as it would save the committee on site a
lot of trouble; and, as some of them were that very day looking at
a Desplaines River site near Riverside--a trip most ostentatiously
advertised in advance--he thought he would telegraph them to stop
looking, and come back to town.
It was always a pleasure to interview Mr. Pullman, for he had a way
of making you feel at ease, and I entered heartily into the humor
of his jocularity. But, as in a bantering way, I let out link after
link of my chain of evidence, he became more and more serious, and
finally--without committing himself, however--took the ground that
even if true, in view of the importance of their plans, no paper
having the good of Chicago at heart ought by premature publication
to interfere with them. He pressed this point more and more, and
finally made frank confession that I was on the right track, by
acknowledging that they had already bought many hundreds of acres,
were negotiating for many hundreds more which would be advanced to
prohibitive prices by publication, and the whole scheme would
thus be wrecked. On the other hand, if I withheld publication, he
promised that I should have the matter exclusively--the whole vast
improvement scheme, unique plan of administration, etc. As there was
the danger in waiting that one of my rivals might get hold of the
facts, exploit them, and thus turn the tables on me, I replied that
the matter was of too great moment for me to take the responsibility
of holding the news, and that I should have to consult Mr. Storey.
It happened that Mr. Storey had invested quite extensively in South
Side boulevard property; and, as a great improvement southward
could not fail to add to the value of his holding, and there was the
further prospect of a more complete exclusive account later than was
possible with my skeleton information, he gave a ready assent.
The town of Pullman meant far more in the mind of its founder than a
mere industrial establishment. The dreary, water-soaked prairie was
raised to high, dry land; an entire town was planned and blocked out
following Mr. Pullman's own design. Architects and landscape architects
worked together to carry out the plan to a harmonious and pleasing
fulfillment. Among the more prominent details of this vast work were
included a system by which the sewage of the town was collected and
pumped far away to the Pullman produce farm; the equipment of every
house and flat regardless of rental with the most modern appliances
of water, gas, and plumbing; the establishment of athletic fields; the
concentration of the merchandising of the town under the glass roof of
the central arcade building, and the construction of a handsome market
house, a fine schoolhouse to accommodate a thousand pupils, a
library containing over 8,000 volumes, a savings bank and a large and
artistically decorated theater. The population of Pullman in January,
1881, counted four souls. In February, 1882, there were 2,084
inhabitants, a total which had increased to 8,203 by September, 1884.
[Illustration: Preparing the steel frame for the upper section of a
Pullman sleeping car]
[Illustration: Sand blasting the brass trimmings of the car before
applying the finish]
A contemporary writer closes an enthusiastic description of the town of
Pullman with the following paragraph:
Imagine a perfectly equipped town of 12,000 inhabitants, built out
from one central thought to a beautiful and harmonious whole. A
town that is bordered with bright beds of flowers and green velvety
stretches of lawn; that is shaded with trees and dotted with parks
and pretty water vistas, and glimpses here and there of artistic
sweeps of landscape gardening; a town where the homes, even to the
most modest, are bright and wholesome and filled with pure air and
light; a town, in a word, where all that is ugly, and discordant,
and demoralizing, is eliminated, and all that inspires to
self-respect, to thrift and to cleanliness of person and of thought
is generously provided. Imagine all this, and try to picture the
empty, sodden morass out of which this beautiful vision was reared,
and you will then have some idea of the splendid work, in its
physical aspects at least, which the far-reaching plan of Mr.
Pullman has wrought.[3]
[3]: _The Story of Pullman_, prepared for distribution at the World's
Fair, 1893.
CHAPTER VII
INVENTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS
The invention of the folding upper berth combination by Mr. Pullman was
the first of many contributions by himself, and in later years by the
Pullman Company and those associated with it, to the development of
railway travel. Sleeping cars for a number of years had given night
accommodations to travelers; there was nothing new in the idea that
a night journey required sleeping accommodations. But in the new and
radical berth construction devised by Mr. Pullman lay the difference
between impracticability and practicability--between discomfort and
luxury.
The earliest sleeping cars were mere bunk cars in which the male
passengers might recline during the night hours. Later, bedding was
furnished, but the necessity of storing it by day in a closet at the end
of the cars created a situation in which order and cleanliness were
far from practicable. By the Pullman invention, however, all this was
changed. A type of car was developed that was not only comfortable and
convenient for day travel, but one that might be quickly transformed
into a comfortable sleeping apartment. Furthermore, the new upper berth
construction made it possible to pack away by day the entire bedding,
mattresses, curtains, and partitions necessary to convert each section
into a double sleeping apartment.
With this simple mechanical innovation the inventor combined an idea
characterized by a breadth of vision that ranks with the great ideas
of the century. In few words, he conceived the thought that it would
be possible at one stroke to supplant the inadequate and inefficient
service of the day with a new service so complete in its comforts and
conveniences that no one might express a wish that the service might be
unable to fulfill.
[Illustration: View of machine section. Steel Erecting Shops]
[Illustration: Fitting up the steel car underframe. Steel Erecting
Shops]
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; it created
the comforts and privacies they naturally required. To be sure it
was several years before the new order of things received general
recognition, but the public quickly caught on. "Travel by Pullman" soon
became a popular diversion.
The story of the early years of the Pullman sleeping car has been told
in the foregoing chapters. Due in large measure to the comfort and
convenience of the cars, continuous travel lengthened, and at once
arose the necessity for eating as well as sleeping accommodations on the
through long-distance trains.
For a number of years foreign travelers in America had praised the
elaborate restaurant service afforded by certain station eating-houses.
Towns developed keen rivalry in respect to the meals provided by
their station "counters," and the station restaurants of certain towns
developed among constant travelers a reputation for unusual culinary
excellence. Our fathers will doubtless recall the glorious fame of
dining rooms at Poughkeepsie, Springfield, and Altoona, and of certain
dishes that enjoyed nation-wide reputation and might be had only at this
or that particular station restaurant.
But, on the other hand, the uninviting, indigestible nature of the
so-called refreshment offered at some railway eating stations had
long been a byword. In most sections of the country it was practically
impossible to procure a respectable meal or lunch while traveling.
Railway officials had wrestled with the subject in vain. Recognizing
the fact that the heart of the railway traveler is most susceptible to
influences reaching it by way of his stomach, they made repeated and
continued endeavors to improve the fare offered during the "twenty
minutes for dinner" stops. With a few exceptions the results were not
encouraging, and the traveling public continued its dyspeptic round
three times a day.
The station eating-house was on an unsound basis, and its disadvantages
were obvious. With the increase of the speed of through trains and the
demand for shorter running times between terminals it became quickly
apparent that a train could not be stopped three times a day to permit
the passengers to gorge a hasty meal at the station restaurant. Three
meals at a minimum of twenty minutes each was an hour lost, and twenty
minutes for eating was as bad for the passenger as it was for the
running time of the trains. There were still other disadvantages.
In addition to the delay of the train and the tax on the passenger's
digestion, there was the frequent discomfort of wet or wintry weather.
On a fine day it was well enough to "stretch one's legs," but in rain
or snow the tri-daily evacuation of the car was a decidedly unpopular
feature.
The installation of "hotel-car" service by the Pullman Company sang the
knell of the station eating-counter. The "President," a car combining
sleeping and eating accommodations, was put in service in 1867 on the
Grand Trunk Railway, then the Great Western of Canada. Its instant
success necessitated the building of the "Kalamazoo" and "Western
World," and in the years immediately following many hotel cars were put
in service.
The second step in the evolution was inevitable. At best, the hotel
car was only a sleeping car with restaurant accommodations. Eating and
sleeping have never been associated in the modern mind; there must be a
separate place for each.
To meet the demand, or rather to anticipate a demand which his keen eyes
foresaw, Mr. Pullman set himself to the task of developing a car which
would be only a dining car, serving no other purpose, and practical for
operation in conjunction with through trains of the fastest speed. The
first real dining car which Mr. Pullman constructed was aptly named
the "Delmonico." It was a complete restaurant with a large kitchen and
pantries at one end. The main body of the car was fitted up as a dining
room in which the passengers from all the cars of the train could enter
and take their meals with entire comfort. The "Delmonico" was put in
regular service in 1868 on the Chicago & Alton, and other Pullman diners
were added the same year. At about the same time the Michigan Central
and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroads also began to operate
dining cars on their trains. To the Chicago & Alton, however, belongs
the honor of having first inaugurated the dining-car system. The
Michigan Central and Burlington did not put on dining cars until 1875.
The Chicago & Alton dining cars were run between Chicago and St. Louis,
and were constructed and managed by Mr. Pullman. The price for a meal
was $1.00. Later the Alton acquired an interest in the dining cars, and
finally assumed full control of them.
[Illustration: Making the cushions for the seats. Upholstery Department]
[Illustration: Making the chairs for the parlor cars. Upholstery
Department]
Although founded and developed, and for a number of years successfully
operated by the Pullman Company, the dining car is no longer under its
management. Due primarily to the vast increase in this particular share
of the business and the variety of service required by travelers in
different sections of the country, it became advisable to turn over to
the various roads the details of catering to their particular patrons.
On some of the leading railroads the highest type of dining-car service
is maintained and advertised as a particular feature. On other roads of
lesser prominence a corresponding degree of service may be found. It
is, perhaps, unfortunate from the point of view of the traveler that the
Pullman Company found it necessary to discontinue a service that it had
so auspiciously inaugurated.
The installation of dining-car service immediately drew attention to a
serious defect in railway train construction that had previously escaped
notice, a defect which was the more apparent in comparison with the
relatively high development of other features of train construction. By
the adoption of the dining car it became necessary for the passengers to
pass from car to car across the platform while the train was in motion,
and often during a condition of rain and snow which added discomfort to
actual danger. Where the crossing of platforms while the train was in
motion had formerly been prohibited, the railroads were now forced to
encourage passengers to subject themselves to this dangerous procedure
in order that they might avail themselves of the convenience of the
dining cars.
Attempts had been made at different times to provide a safe and covered
passageway between the cars, especially on fast express trains, but
nothing of a practical nature had resulted. In 1852 and 1855 patents
were taken out for canvas devices to connect adjoining cars and create
a passage way between them. These appliances were installed in 1857 on
a train on the Naugatuck Railroad, in Connecticut, but soon proved to be
of little practical use and were abandoned several years later.
[Illustration: The frame end posts for Pullman standard cars are made in
this section of the shops]
[Illustration: The assembling of the steel car partitions is shown in
this picture]
But in 1886 Mr. 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. The
result of his efforts combined with those of his associates was
the complete solution of the problem and the establishment of the
"vestibule" train, practically as it exists today. The vestibule patent
was granted to Mr. H. H. Sessions, of the Pullman Company, and covered
many important features, and particularly the arrangement of the springs
which kept the cars in line in a vertical plane.
The vestibule was patented in 1887. By its application the appearance
of the train as a unit was materially increased, but of far greater
importance was the contribution which it made to safety. Not only did
the enclosed vestibule afford protection to passengers crossing the
platform from one car to another, but the entire vestibule construction
immediately gave greater safety in case of wreck by preventing one
platform from "riding" the other and producing a telescoping of the
cars.
The vestibule as designed and patented did not extend to the full width
of the car. It consisted of elastic diaphragms on steel frames attached
to the ends of the cars, the faces of the diaphragms when the train was
made up, pressing firmly against each other by powerful spiral springs
which held them in position. A further advantage of the vestibule was
the almost entire elimination of the oscillation of the cars.
[Illustration: _The vestibule was invented by George M. Pullman. This
illustration shows its earliest form which extended only to the width of
the doorway of the car. In 1893 it was extended to the full width of the
car._]
The first vestibuled trains were put in service in April, 1887, on the
Pennsylvania Railroad, and in a few years were adopted by every railroad
using Pullman equipment. In 1893 the vestibule was redesigned to enclose
the entire platform by means of a drop which lowered over the stair
openings, thus increasing the roominess of the car and utilizing every
inch of possible space.
In the _Railway Review_ of April 16, 1887, occurs an interesting
description of the first "solid-vestibuled" train. For a number of
months following, this radical innovation was widely recognized by
the press throughout the country, and Pullman vestibuled cars were
advertised by the railroads on which they were operated. We quote in
part from the article in the _Railway Review_:
This week there was turned out of the Pullman works, at Pullman,
Ill., a train of three sleepers, one dining car, and one combination
baggage and smoker, that for perfection, in detail of manufacture
and ornament, and in completeness of comfort and luxury, is
unquestionably far ahead of any train ever before made up. This
train was on public exhibition for a few days at Chicago, and on
Friday was taken on its christening trip, over a short run on the
Illinois Central Railroad. The train is intended for "Limited"
service on the Pennsylvania system.
The trial trip was a success in every way. The train went to Otto, a
short distance south of Kankakee, sixty miles from Chicago. There it
was reversed on a Y, and an opportunity afforded of witnessing its
operation on a sharp curve. The action of the flexible connection of
the vestibules was perfect. On the return trip the train was run
at a high rate of speed, and it was evident that the cars were held
very firmly together, by the springs at the top of the vestibules,
and that there was much less jarring and swaying than is usual even
on a very level track.
[Illustration: Axle generator for electric lighting of the car]
The list of business men and railroad managers who made up the party
indicates the importance of the occasion. It included:
George M. Pullman
G. F. Brown
T. H. Wickes
C. H. Chappell
J. J. Janes
Orson Smith
O. W. Potter
W. T. Baker
H. R. Hobart
A. N. Eddy
Jesse Spalding
Frederick Broughton
W. P. Nixon
John M. Clark
A. C. Bartlett
J. W. Hambleton
E. L. Brewster
Henry S. Boutell
D. B. Fiske
Willard A. Smith
Stephen F. Gale
Edson Keith
O. S. A. Sprague
A. B. Pullman
J. T. Lester
H. J. MacFarland
S. W. Doane
Murray Nelson
A. H. Burley
C. K. Offield
E. T. Jeffery
Prof. Swing
W. K. Sullivan
W. K. Ackerman
A. C. Thomas
J. McGregor Adams
J. F. Studebaker
P. E. Studebaker
T. B. Blackstone
Rev. S. J. McPherson
C. S. Tuckerman
A. A. Sprague
P. L. Yoe
A. F. Seeberger
D. S. Wegg
F. N. Finney
During the days in which the train was exhibited at Van Buren street,
Chicago, it was visited by approximately 20,000 people. The article
continues:
This fact shows that the public has a deep interest in improvements
in traveling conveniences. We do not remember that any previous
invention or improvement has ever excited such general public
interest. Mr. Pullman has again struck the popular chord.
The first vestibule train to the land of the Aztecs, the "Montezuma
Special," was naturally of Pullman construction, and began regular
tri-monthly trips from New Orleans to the City of Mexico and return,
via the Southern Pacific, Mexican International, and Mexican Central
Railway, on February 7, 1889. Four magnificent cars, electrically
lighted, comprised the train. The initial trip of 1,835 miles was made
in about seventy-one hours, and on its arrival in the City of Mexico
a banquet was given to President Diaz and his cabinet to signalize the
advent of the first international vestibule train into the capital of
Mexico.
The lighting of railway cars shows an interesting evolution. Undoubtedly
candles were used at the earliest period, but the use of oil dates back
beyond the birthday of the Pullman car. Oil lamps, at best, were a poor
substitute for the light of day. Casting a dim, yellow light, flickering
in every draught, smelling and smoking when not properly cared for, and
vitiating the car atmosphere, it was small wonder that the public showed
prompt appreciation of the first substitute that was provided.
The brilliant Pintsch light, which for a number of years had had wide
use in Europe, was first introduced into America by the Pullman Company
on the crack Erie train in the through New York-Chicago service in
1883. The gas used for these lights was of high candle power and was
manufactured from petroleum. As a car illuminant it has held its own
almost to the present day.
It is impossible to exaggerate the part played by the Pullman Company
in the development of electric lighting of cars. Without its inspired
initiative and its vast resources for practical and costly experiment
it is fair to believe that electricity would not have been successfully
utilized for this purpose for many years. The _Railroad Gazette_ of
January 25, 1889, expresses this thought:
Without extended experiments we can scarcely hope to develop a good
system of electric lighting for railroad service. Such experiments
are rather expensive, and it is only by the co-operation of
liberal-minded managers that anything like a perfect system can
be expected in a reasonable time. The Pullman Company has great
confidence in the success of electric lighting, and therefore, in
spite of the annoyance and expense of the present system, expresses
a determination to use it, expecting that something better will
result in the near future from the extended experience now being
obtained.
Although the incandescent electric lamp was introduced by Edison in
1879, following by two years the introduction by Brush of the arc lamp,
it was on an English railway in an American Pullman car supplied with
electricity by French accumulator cells that the electric light on
October 14, 1881, barely fifty years from the first suggestion of the
iron horse by Stephenson, cast its brilliant light for the first time in
a railway carriage.
The trial was made in a Pullman car, forming part of a special train
on the Brighton Railway. A number of officials of the road, a
representative of the Pullman Company, and Mr. F. A. Pincaffs and Mr.
Lachlan of the Faure Accumulator Company composed the party, and at 3:25
the train pulled out of the Victoria Station for Brighton.
Only a few months before, Mr. Faure had sent to Sir William Thomson his
little box of lead plates coated with red oxide and fully charged with
electricity. The great physicist saw at once its possibilities, and in
a relatively short time inventors were developing countless applications
of the new wonder. Its application to car lighting was an important
test.
The Pullman car on which this first experiment was made, carried
beneath it on a shelf some thirty-two small metal boxes or cells, each
containing lead plates coated with oxide. Stored in these cells was the
power to light the car. It was nothing more than the most elementary
storage battery, a far cry from the compact batteries of today and the
massive generator swung beneath the floor of the modern car.
[Illustration: The sewing room. Upholstery Department]
All the previous night a steam engine had created power to charge the
cells. In the roof of the car were twelve small Edison incandescent
lights with bamboo filaments. The light was uneven; it was "garish,"
but at the turn of a switch its rays filled the car. With pardonable
enthusiasm the _London Times_ stated that "the car on the return
journey in the evening was kept lighted the whole of the distance from
Brighton to Victoria."
It is interesting to read in the _London Daily Telegraph_ of October 15,
1885, the following mention of this important event:
Yesterday's trial was understood to have special reference, however,
to a new train, wholly composed of Pullman cars, which it is
proposed shortly to put on the service between Victoria and
Brighton, and should the experiment be deemed fully satisfactory it
is probable that the new train will from the first be fitted with
the electric light. So far as the travelers were concerned the
result was eminently successful. It would scarcely be possible to
conceive a steadier, more equable, or more agreeable light. On the
down journey the first trial was made in the Merstham tunnel, and
then in the Balcombe and Clayton tunnels. All that was needed was
to move the little switch, and instantaneously the delicate carbon
thread enclosed in the lamps was aglow with pure white light. The
return journey was made in the night, and the electric lamps were
alight during the whole distance. There had been some question
whether the supply would prove sufficient, as owing to stoppages the
special had taken a somewhat longer time than had been allowed for;
the event, however, showed that the storage had been ample. It would
be possible to generate electricity by the energy of the moving
train itself, and this has indeed been suggested to be done. By this
means enough energy could be supplied to the incandescent lamps, but
in any case the accumulator would be necessary to act as a reservoir
when the train was not in motion. It possesses, however, another
advantage equally important. Experience shows that a current of
absolutely uniform strength supplying an even and constant light
can only be derived from stored electricity. The oxide of lead which
covers the plates not only prevents leakage, but enables the supply
to be withdrawn with perfect regularity, and renders sub-division
easy. Yesterday the smoke room and lavatory of the car were lighted,
and occasionally the lights were turned off without in any way
interfering with the other lamps in the same circuit. Before
the train started on the return journey the brightly illuminated
carriage was an object of interest to many members of the Iron and
Steel Institute who visited Brighton and Newhaven yesterday.
With regard to expense, it is claimed for the accumulator and the
incandescent lamps that the expenditure would be decidedly less than
on oil, while, as to the comparative value of the two there is no
room for difference of opinion. It was the general feeling of all
who took part in the excursion that the question of the electric
lighting of trains had been solved, and that to the Brighton
Company, whatever may be the immediate results of the experiment,
would belong the honour of taking the first decisive and practical
step in the way of reform.
Four months later a correspondent of a Sheffield, England, paper,
writing from London to the _Railway Review_ of the recent trial of
electric lights on the Pullman train of the London, Brighton & South
Coast Railway, says:
There is no doubt whatever on the point that this, apart from the
question of cost, is a decided success. It is easily manageable, and
diffuses through the train a pleasant, equable light, scarcely less
agreeable than daylight. It is turned on and off with instantaneous
effect as the train enters and leaves a tunnel, and of course is
kept burning the whole of the time during the night journeys. The
electricity is stored in a number of lead plates, which are kept in
water in iron boxes in the guard's van. There are two lots, one at
either end of the train, and two mechanics in charge of them. This
discovery of the ability to store electricity for application to
lighting purposes seems to carry the discovery farther than anything
since it was first introduced. It gets over many difficulties which
seemed insuperable--especially the important one of the great waste
of power which is illustrated every night at the Savoy Theatre--and
would be applicable to the introduction of electricity for household
use.
At the Savoy, when the exigencies of the play require that the
lights should be turned down in the auditorium, there is no
cessation of the enormous power required to produce the full effect.
What happens is that by a mechanical contrivance, the electricity
is carried off from the light and goes to waste. With this system of
storing, electricity can be used just like gas, as much or as little
as people chance to want. Another great advantage is the freedom
from jumping, inseparable from the action of the driving power of
the steam engine, or of the motion power of water. The lights of the
Brighton train burn just as steadily as gas, an effect not in any
way obtained where the light is maintained directly by the driving
power of steam.
But after all, the question of gas vs. electricity will resolve
itself into one of cost, and it is here where gas will inevitably
hold its own. The fundamental principle of the electric light is
that for a given exertion of power you obtain a given proportion
of light, neither more nor less. For every hour it is burning
there will be required a certain exactly-ascertained proportion of
revolutions of the steam engine, and therefore, if the whole town is
lighted it can be done only at a strictly proportionate expense to
the lighting of a single house. As to what that expense will be, as
compared with gas, the Brighton train would, if we had an idea of
the actual figures, afford a precise means of information. I met on
the train a well-known gas engineer, attracted, like myself, by the
novelty of the experiment. What the electric light cost he was
not able to say, but when we take into account the capital sunk
in plant, involving a steam engine with the necessary buildings,
consumption of coal and necessary employment of skilled labor, it
must be something considerable. Against this is the bare fact that
the Brighton train could be lighted with gas for the double journey
at the cost of 10d. It is a physical impossibility that electricity
should ever come anywhere near this, and that probably explains
the singular phenomenon that at the time when electricity is making
conspicuous advances in public favor, the value of gas shares is not
only steadily maintained, but is actually rising in the market.
[Illustration: The steel parts used for interior car finish are all
standardized, and are formed by powerful presses]
[Illustration: Another large press at work on the forming of steel
shapes for the interior framing of the cars]
The present method of heating an entire train with steam from the
locomotive was satisfactorily tested out in the winter of 1887, and
was generally adopted the following year. By this improved system the
individual heaters in each car were abolished, and a source of much
discomfort and complaint was removed. The Pullman cars were immediately
altered to benefit by the new system.
CHAPTER VIII
HOW THE CARS ARE MADE
In former chapters has been told the story of the birth of the Pullman
car and its development through the various phases of its evolution.
Generally speaking, this evolution for the first forty years was
characterized chiefly by the addition, at one time or another, of
certain inventions and improvements, such as the electric light and the
vestibule, and by a changing style of interior decoration conforming to
contemporary fashions. But at no time is recorded a change in the
basic idea of car construction that can in any measure compare with the
revolutionizing change which was recorded in 1908 by the construction of
the first "all-steel" Pullman car.
For a number of years steel sills and under frames had furnished a
staunch foundation for all cars manufactured by the Pullman Company for
its operation. Further strengthened by steel vestibules, it is to be
doubted if the all-steel car offered any very material increase in the
safety already afforded to the passengers. But the change which the
steel car brought in the process of manufacture was radical in the
extreme. The first Pullman cars, and in fact every car up to and through
the nineties, was of all-wood construction. Wood-making machinery filled
the great shops at Pullman; carpenters and cabinet-makers numbered a big
percentage of the pay roll. It was a wood-working industry. At one fell
stroke the old order changed to the new. The songs of the band-saw and
the planer were stilled and in their stead rose the metallic clamor of
steam hammer and turret lathe, and the endless staccato reverberation of
an army of riveters. Ponderous machines to bend, twist, or cut a bar
or sheet of steel filled the vast workrooms. An army of steel workers,
Titans of the past reborn to fulfill a modern destiny, fanned the flames
in their furnaces and released the leash of sand blast, air hose, and
gas flame.
[Illustration: This machine is at work punching holes for screws etc. in
the steel for the inside finish]
[Illustration: This great power press is engaged in shaping the steel
panelling for the inside finish of the car]
But fascinating as unquestionably was the work of the patient artisans
who inlaid the beflowered Eastlake Pullman or the Moorish cars of
another day, there is equal romance in the product of the modern worker
who builds these rolling hostelries of steel. Under the high glass roof
the tumult of ponderous machines fills the air with pandemonium. At one
side of one of the main aisles a half dozen great steel girders, like
keels for giant ships, lie on the floor. These are the mighty box
girders, eighty-one feet in length and weighing over nine tons each,
which will form the backbone of future Pullmans. To each of these
girders, or sills, are riveted plates, angles, and steel castings which
extend the full length of the car and platforms, as well as floor
beams, cross bearers, bolsters, and end sills of pressed steel. On this
foundation the side sills are riveted, steel beams that run the entire
length of the car.
When this gray mass of steel is finally riveted together with its
coverplates, tieplates, and floorplates, the underframe of the car is
completed--an almost indestructible foundation which alone weighs 27,365
pounds. On this underframe the superstructure or frame is erected to
form the body of the car. This frame is composed of pressed steel posts
and plates forming for each side a complete girder which would by itself
alone carry the entire weight of the loaded car.
The roof deck is separately assembled, and as soon as the superstructure
of the car is ready it is swung up by a crane and dropped into place.
Like the rest of the car, the roof is of steel, braced and riveted to
defy the greatest possible strains. The ends and vestibules are now
built on, piece by piece, until the skeleton of the car is complete. The
vestibules are particularly imposing, for on each side, framing the side
doors through which the passengers enter the car, are giant beams of
steel so built into the construction of the frame that only under most
extraordinary circumstances could the force of a collision crush the
vestibule or the car behind it.
The trucks which carry this tremendous burden of steel are marvels of
strength and efficiency. Each of the two trucks has six steel wheels
weighing nine hundred pounds apiece. Added to this is the weight of the
three six hundred pound axles, the two steel castings which form
the framework for the trucks together with the bolsters, springs,
equalizers, and brake equipment--a total weight of 42,000 pounds for the
trucks alone, contributed to the total weight of the car.
[Illustration: Riveting the underframe]
[Illustration: The steel end posts in position, providing strongest
possible protection in case of collision]
The car is now subjected to a thorough sand-blasting, a process that
removes every particle of scale, grease, or dirt and leaves the steel in
perfect condition to receive the first coat of paint and the insulation.
To the passenger, the presence of the steel construction is
apparent, but the insulation, which forms a vital factor in the car's
construction, can be seen only during the process of building. Composed
of a combination of cement, hair, and asbestos, this insulating material
is packed into every cubic inch of space between the inner and outer
shells of the roof and sides, forming a perfect non-conductor to protect
the passengers against the biting cold of winter or the heat of summer
sunshine. A similar cement preparation is next laid on the floor,
combining the quality of a non-conductor of heat and cold with sanitary
qualities invaluable as an aid in maintaining the cars in a strictly
sanitary condition.
At this point in the construction the car is turned over to the
steamfitters, plumbers, and electricians, who perform their work with
the skill and dispatch bred of a long familiarity with the particular
requirements of car construction. To see the Pullman car at this stage
is to see a network of steam-pipes and electric conduit lacing in and
out between the gaunt steel frame of the car, and everywhere the white
plaster-like insulation packed into every cavity. As soon as these gangs
of workmen have finished, other workers fit into place the interior
panel plates, partitions, lockers, and seat frames, and the car
instantly assumes a new and almost completed aspect. Meanwhile the
painters have completed their work on the exterior of the car and begin
the finer finish of the interior. Here coat upon coat is laid, and after
each coat laborious rubbing to give the required finish. The graining,
by which various woods are so faithfully imitated, is then applied, and
last the varnishing.
[Illustration: Type of wood-frame truck used on early cars; four wheels
only, with a big rubber block over each in place of springs]
[Illustration: Modern cast-steel truck; six wheels with powerful springs
to take up the jars and jolts of the road]
The car is now completed with the exception of the fittings. A gang of
men hang curtains in the doors and windows; the upholsterers contribute
the carpets, cushions, mattresses, and blankets; the various little
fixtures are added, and the car is finished. _Steel! Veritably!_ One man
can trundle in a single wheelbarrow all the wood that has gone into its
construction.
Rich Brewster green, the new paint gleaming in the sunlight, a long line
of these seventy-ton steel mile-a-minute hostelries are waiting for the
hour when the white-jacketed porters will open their doors in welcome
to their first passengers. Above the windows the word "Pullman" in dull
gold will carry from coast to coast the name of their founder. Below the
windows is the name of the car, selected usually with local significance
in consideration of the lines over which that particular car will
operate.
* * * * *
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.
[Illustration: The car ready for the interior fittings. The floor is of
monolith construction]
[Illustration: Interior work. The steel framework for seats and berths]
CHAPTER IX
THE OPERATION OF THE PULLMAN CAR
On the magic carpet of Bagdad the fortunate travelers of a fabulous age
were transported to their destination, over valley, river, and mountain
with a certainty and dispatch that has been unparalleled in the annals
of passenger transportation. But the magic carpet, despite the
generous measure of its service, seems to have been lost to following
generations, and only its reputation, doubtless somewhat amplified by
the telling, remains to set a high standard to succeeding transportation
enterprises.
Service is a much-used and a much-abused word. It has manifold
significance. It may be a personal thing and carry the conscientious
effort of individuals eager to do for others offices which they desire
performed; it may be purely mechanical and consist only in the provision
of the "ways and means" to secure a desired end. 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.
[Illustration: 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; it is of interest to everyone, for
everyone is to some degree a traveler; an actual or a potential Pullman
patron. In preceding chapters has been traced the story of passenger
transportation in America; how the first railroads offered communication
only between a few closely related cities, and how later the growth
of the railroads brought into direct communication practically every
village and metropolis throughout the land. Then came the time when
the inadequacy of such complete but disconnected service struck the
imagination of a man who saw the endless miles of track of countless
railroads bound together by a supplemental system to which all railroads
contributed and from which they profited, and by which, most of all, the
public would enjoy a service of a scope which could otherwise only
be attained by an actual combination of these railroads into a single
company. But the vision of the founder of the Pullman Company did
not stop at the idea of a unified system. He had not only seen the
discomfort and inconvenience of countless changes from one train to
another at railroad junctions and the midnight gatherings on the station
platform; he had seen in tired eyes the fatigue of sleeplessness; he had
seen in the preponderance of male passengers the lack of a protection
sufficient to permit the free travel of unescorted women; he had
realized, and his realization ranks high with the thoughts of the
world's innovators, that travel was a hardship and that it could be made
a pleasure.
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;
too much money could not be invested in it. Hand in hand with this
development of the mechanical side of service he developed its extension
throughout the country, by means of which it might be put into the hands
of the greatest number of people for their greater convenience. Never
has history more completely justified a business that from its character
must be to a certain extent a monopoly. Never has competition more
promptly yielded to unification.
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.
But, as a matter of fact, the vast organization which makes possible
the movement of the seventy-five hundred cars which comprise the present
equipment holds an interest secondary only to the actual operation of
the cars themselves.
[Illustration: Front end of a dining room in a private car]
[Illustration: Rear end of the same dining room]
There was a day when the run from Albany to Schenectady was the longest
continuous railroad ride that a traveler might take. Today it is
possible to travel in a Pullman car without change from Washington, D.
C., to San Francisco, a distance of 3,625 miles, requiring one hundred
and eighteen hours, or approximately five days.
But distance is not alone characteristic of Pullman service; equal
attention is given to shorter "hauls." From Greensboro to Raleigh, North
Carolina, for instance, a distance of only eighty-one miles, Pullman
sleeping cars are regularly operated. Here, as in many other instances,
arrangements exist whereby the passengers may retire early in the
evening while the car is at rest on a siding in the station, and
arise at a reasonable hour in the morning. By such service hotel
accommodations are practically afforded and it becomes possible for the
travelers to have a whole day for pleasure or business at one place,
spend a night in which a hundred or five hundred miles are traversed,
and arrive without fatigue at another place the following morning.
The hotel desk corresponds to the ticket office of the Pullman Company.
Imagine a hotel with 260,000 beds and 2,950 office desks, and a total
registration of 26,000,000 people each year. This is what the Pullman
Company does, however, and incidentally it does it often at a mile a
minute and in every state in the Union. The 2,950 offices where Pullman
berths, seats, drawing rooms or compartments may be purchased include
Quebec, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Vancouver on the north; San Diego, El
Paso, New Orleans, Key West, and Havana on the south; San Francisco
on the west, and the seaboard towns of Maine on the east. Under normal
conditions the southern limit is still further extended to fifty-six
additional offices in the Republic of Mexico, as far south as Salina
Cruz on the Gulf of Tehuantepec, and approximately two hundred miles
from the boundary between Mexico and Guatemala, Central America.
The longest distance which it is possible to travel with a single
Pullman ticket is from Portland, Maine, to San Francisco, by the way
of Washington, D. C., New Orleans and Los Angeles. This cannot be
done, however, in one sleeper, and changes must be made at New York
and Washington. But a brief consideration of the perfect organization
necessary to provide such continuous passage with berths reserved at
each point of change by the mere purchase of a ticket at the starting
point, grants to the Pullman Company a measure of credit due. In actual
mileage the distance covered by this trip is 4,199.
[Illustration: ROBERT T. LINCOLN
President of the Pullman Company from 1897 to 1911]
As a rule the berths in sleeping cars and seats in parlor cars are on
sale at the terminals of the different lines, but to provide facilities
at intermediate points where the demand is sufficient to justify it, a
limited number of sections are assigned for sale at such stations and
tickets may be purchased from them on application. At stations of less
importance and where the demand is not sufficient to assign any definite
space, an arrangement exists whereby the vacant accommodations are
telegraphed by ticket agents or conductors from point to point in order
to accommodate passengers taking the trains at such stations. It is also
possible and a very common practice to purchase a single sleeping car
ticket between stations a great distance apart--for instance, between
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, to Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, via any of the ordinary routes of
travel, by sufficient notice to the ticket agent to enable his reserving
the accommodations, and it is also possible to purchase under similar
conditions a sleeping car ticket in Havana, Cuba, for a berth, section,
or drawing room from Key West, Florida, to Seattle, Washington, a
distance of 3,923 miles, taking one hundred and thirty-three hours;
not, however, without change, but in connecting cars, giving continuous
sleeping car service over various routes.
During the year 1916, 16,398,450 tickets of various forms were printed
in Chicago and distributed to the various ticket offices, and in
addition, 8,150,000 cash-fare tickets or checks were issued by
conductors to travelers purchasing on the train.
In addition to offices where tickets may be purchased, arrangements
exist in many thousands of smaller points whereby the public may secure
sleeping-car accommodations by application to the station agent or other
representative of the railroad company, who will arrange by telephone,
telegraph, or letter the desired space to be called for, with a
reasonable time at a designated point.
In order to extend to the public every courtesy consistent with lawful
requirements and good business principles, the Pullman Company endeavors
to provide prompt and careful attention to all requests for refund of
fares where service paid for is not furnished, whether through the acts
of its agents or employees or the passenger, or due to interruption of
traffic.
Applications of this nature are usually made to the company's general
offices in Chicago, but when this is not convenient, a report made to
the company's representative in any of the important cities throughout
the country is forwarded to the central offices and receives the most
careful consideration.
It would seem of interest in this connection to state that during the
year 1916, 53,743 applications, amounting to $152,446.00, were received
for refund of fares, an average of one hundred and seventy-nine for
each working day. Of the total number received 48,025 were considered
favorably and paid, indicating the liberal policy of the company in
such matters. Regardless of the amount involved, great or small, it is
necessary that each case be considered on its individual merits, and the
result determined with due regard to fairness to the passenger and the
company, and not conflicting with legal necessities.
Probably seventy-five per cent of these requests for refunds are
occasioned by passengers changing their plans or missing their train.
Most frequent is the reason given that the wife has packed the tickets
in the trunk, that the cab or taxi broke down, or that the last act of
the theater caused unrealized delay. Often the tickets are lost, and not
infrequently they are turned in by others for refund.
[Illustration: Bedroom and observation section of a costly private car.
This car represents the apotheosis of railroad travel]
[Illustration]
But one of the most convenient features of the Pullman service is the
ease with which the traveler may reserve in advance accommodations on
the train which he intends to take. In the ordinary railway coach it
is a rule of "first come, first served" and the late arrival is often
obliged to take a seat with a stranger. By the Pullman system, however,
a call over the telephone or a stop at the local ticket office is all
that is necessary to make as definite reservation of space as for a
theater, and the traveler is wroth indeed when in rare instances a slip
occurs and he finds his seat or berth has not been held for him and has
been sold to another.
Naturally so general a convenience has led to rank abuses from which the
passengers invariably suffer. Chief among them is the practice of hotel
clerks and porters, especially in large cities and at summer and
winter resorts, to reserve far in advance all the desirable Pullman
accommodations on popular trains in the names of supposititious
travelers whom they claim to represent, and later sell these tickets to
the hotel guests at a premium or for the tip which invariably follows.
By such practice the distribution of space is placed in the hands of
outside parties, out of the control of the railroads or the Pullman
Company, and the traveler is obliged to look to these irresponsible
individuals for his accommodations. In addition, the tip or extra fee
increases the cost of the ticket, errors in "duplicate sales" are made
more frequent, and a critical and unfriendly feeling is created in the
mind of the passenger who has been unable to secure a "lower" on early
application at the ticket office, but was able perhaps to secure one at
train time from the unused tickets turned in by hotel porters. Naturally
the feeling is created that the railroad or Pullman agents are holding
back space for a tip or a favorite, and "playing favorites" is never
popular with the public.
There are several good stories told of the action of the Pullman Company
in cases where they "had the goods" on the offending hotel porters. As
the company is in no sense required by law to make refund, but does so
only for a convenience to its patrons, it is possible to refuse to make
a refund if the case justifies the action. At a popular watering place
an enterprising hotel employee figured out that on the day following
Easter a large number of guests would leave on a certain popular train.
Accordingly, like the theater "scalper," he purchased outright a large
block of tickets on this train, in fact, every lower on the two Pullman
sleepers. Fortunately the local agent of the company sensed that there
was something "rotten in the state of Denmark" and made provision for
two additional sleepers beyond the usual two which travel warranted.
Being able to secure satisfactory accommodations direct from the agent
the passengers failed to patronize the hotel porter's be-tipped and
premiumed wares, and he, "stuck with the goods," tried a few days later
to throw them back for refund on the Pullman Company. Their refusal cost
him an even hundred dollars and broke up a peculiarly bad condition in
that particular locality.
Many, indeed, are the difficulties attending the operation of a
system of such magnitude, and it is only by a consideration of these
difficulties that the true wonder of a service so nearly perfect can be
appreciated.
The operation of a system of such magnitude as the Pullman Company
necessitates an operating organization letter perfect in its detail.
Such an organization cannot be built to order; it must be a development,
the result of years of wearying experience and costly experiment. In
the introduction to the official book of instruction provided to car
employees of the company, occurs, above the signature of the general
superintendent, this sentence: "The most important feature to be
observed at all times is to satisfy and please passengers." It is an
apparently simple commission, a natural expression of desire, but
a brief investigation of the requirements necessary "to satisfy and
please" twenty-six million passengers, traveling rapidly from place
to place, from north to south and from coast to coast, regardless of
climate or locality, discloses a service and machinery for the carrying
out of that service complete beyond the realization of the most
discerning traveler.
To comprehend more clearly the details of this nation-wide service it
must be considered in its two aspects--the material equipment which the
operation of the cars requires, and the personal service afforded by the
employees of the company. 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.
The Pullman Company maintains, in addition to the great plant at
Pullman, six repair shops situated at various convenient points
throughout the country where cars are repaired and maintained in good
condition. In 1916, a total of 5,115 cars were repaired at these
various shops at a cost of over five million dollars. Only by such rigid
maintenance can the cars be kept in the almost invariably excellent
condition in which they are found by the public.
[Illustration: Modern Pullman steel sleeping car, ready to be made up
for the night]
[Illustration: Modern Pullman steel sleeping car during the day]
Years ago the wearied traveler wrapped his great coat about him for his
midnight journey. Later a few "sleeping" cars of primitive construction
provided sheets and blankets which were stored in a cupboard in the end
of the car. As these were washed only at irregular intervals, it was
a lucky passenger who found clean linen for his bed, and if he did not
make up the bed himself, it was the brakeman who provided this domestic
service. Naturally no one thought of undressing for the night, and when
the Pullman car was first introduced it was necessary to print on the
back of the tickets and in the employees' rules book the warning that
passengers must not retire with their boots on.
Today the Pullman Company to provide clean linen nightly for each
passenger, keeps on hand 1,858,178 sheets, which are valued at
$980,553.00, and 1,403,354 pillow slips worth $186,475.00. In the twelve
months ending April 27, 1916, over two hundred thousand sheets, valued
at over one hundred thousand dollars, and nearly two hundred thousand
pillow cases, valued at over twenty thousand dollars, were condemned.
And during the same period 108,492,359 pieces of linen, including
both sheets and pillow cases were washed and ironed. In the matter of
condemnation, it is interesting to learn that the slightest tear or
stain is considered sufficient cause. These figures are staggering in
their immensity, but even more amazing is the system by which these
articles are provided, changed, washed, returned in traveling hotels, at
times hundreds of miles removed from the nearest supply station.
In the oldtime washroom a roller towel gave satisfaction to travelers
less particular than those of the present day. But now how things have
changed. Two million seven hundred thousand towels are needed to supply
an ever increasing demand. Three hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars was their cost and each year seventy million towels is the
laundry order. When Brown has shaved in the men's washroom in good
American style, he will probably wipe his razor on a towel. It is not
his custom at home, but the traveler seems to have scant respect for
property. That one little cut will destroy the towel for future service.
Pullman towels rarely have a chance to wear out. Over a hundred thousand
a year are condemned chiefly because of such usage, and, sad to relate,
each year over half a million are "lost." A Pullman towel is a handy
wrapping for a pair of shoes, but the annual lost charge amounts to
nearly seventy thousand dollars. It is a charge that must be accepted by
the company. It will not do to question a passenger's integrity.
All told, the investment by the Pullman Company in car linen amounts to
$1,856,708.00, representing 6,597,714 separate pieces. And this is only
for sleeping and parlor cars and a relatively small number of buffet and
private cars, for the company no longer operates the diners. To provide
new linen to replace the lost and condemned costs an annual sum of over
four hundred thousand dollars.
But the quantities and the cost of other articles which the company
provides are even more impressive. These, for the most part, are
expressions of Pullman service over and above the service itself, but
it is unquestionably true that by such "over and above" service is the
whole service most truly judged. Who would think, for instance, that
in one year 5,819,656 women's hats were protected against dust by paper
bags provided by the porters. And yet these paper bags represented
a total cost of $14,549.00. Smokers in the same period consumed two
million boxes of matches, and over forty-two million drinking cups
costing nearly eighty thousand dollars gave the modern touch of
sanitation to the water coolers. Soap would naturally be considered an
essential part of the service, but a soap bill for one year of sixty
thousand dollars is a large order for cleanliness. So, too, is the sum
of $20,000 for hair brushes and a third of that amount for combs.
Back in the dark ages of blissful ignorance of germs, railroad coaches
were hallowed breeding places for sickness. But times have changed, and
today it is a pretty safe remark to make that the Pullman car is more
healthful than almost any place where people frequently congregate.
It does not take many gray hairs to remember the days of sleeping
cars furnished with heavy carpets tacked to wooden floors, of stuffy
hangings, and plush upholstery, of fancy woodwork rife with cracks and
crannies, and of washrooms and toilets that no amount of cleaning could
ever maintain entirely innocuous.
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. Even the
location of a coat hook receives a consideration that would perhaps seem
exaggerated to the casual outsider. Double curtains are now provided
on the newer cars, one set for the lower and another set for the upper
berth.
Once a month a Committee on Standards, composed of the higher officials
of the company, meets at the big plant at Pullman. On a track near the
main entrance, stands a car in which every practical suggestion has
been incorporated for the inspection of the committee. Some of these
suggestions are quickly eliminated by their experienced verdict; others,
possessing apparent worthiness, are passed and are later incorporated
in the construction of the next cars manufactured, when the public will
become the final judge. Many of these improvements are of a technical
character, and primarily affect the construction of the cars; others are
of a more directly personal nature and contribute more to the comfort
and convenience of the traveler. All that are passed by the committee
serve to place still higher the standard that for fifty years has been
constantly uplifted by the company.
[Illustration: At the end of its journey the Pullman car is thoroughly
cleaned and disinfected. The first picture on this page shows the
bedding being given a sun bath. The next, the appearance of the car
when ready for fumigation, and the two illustrations at the bottom, the
vacuum machine at work.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
As a car-building material wood has had its day, and the concrete floor
of the Pullman car is tacit tribute to the sanitary properties of a
widely used material. On the floor of concrete the familiar green carpet
is lightly stretched to be easily removed at the journey's end, and
after the floor has been thoroughly scrubbed, returned after a complete
cleansing with vacuum cleaners. Instead of insanitary woodwork, the
smooth surfaces of steel which form the interior of the car offer no
lurking place for germs, and soap and water at frequent and regular
intervals maintain a high degree of cleanliness. Of course, the porter
with his portable vacuum cleaners and his dustcloth, can keep the car
tidy en route, but the real cleaning comes when the trip is over and
a gang of professional workers with every appliance to serve this end
attacks the cars. Then not only are the carpets renovated but the prying
nozzles of powerful vacuum cleaners suck up every particle of dust from
seats, berths and cushions. Each mattress is given similar treatment,
and mattresses and pillows are hung in the open air for the action of
that greatest of all purifiers, the sun. Blankets are given a similar
treatment. Water coolers are cleaned and sterilized with steam. In fact,
nothing that could harbor a speck of dust is neglected.
The slight, acrid odor sometimes noticeable in a Pullman car at the
beginning of a run is caused by the disinfectants which are liberally
employed. A jug of disinfectant solution is a part of the equipment of
every car and this is used for all car washing and particularly on the
floors and in the toilet and washrooms.
To protect still further the health of the passengers, the cars are
regularly fumigated with a gas which kills all disease-producing
bacteria. Whenever a car has carried a sick person it is fumigated as
soon as it is vacated, in addition to the regular monthly, weekly, or
other schedule of fumigation for various lines and terminals. In order
that the district offices may be promptly informed as to the necessity
of this extra fumigation, the conductor is required to note on his
inspection report the fact that a sick passenger has been carried, and
the car is immediately taken out of service and thoroughly cleaned and
fumigated. Moreover, if space occupied by a sick passenger is vacated en
route, it must not be resold until the car has reached its terminal and
has been fumigated.
To provide the necessary facilities for car cleaning, the company
maintains a cleaning force in two hundred and twenty-five principal
yards, and, in addition, at one hundred and fifty-eight outlying points.
These yards require the service of over four thousand cleaners.
Stationed throughout the United States, in nearly every city
of prominence, are six superintendents, thirty-nine district
superintendents and thirty agents. These men each week make personal
inspection of cars in operation with the sole purpose of keeping the
service up to the highest standard. In addition, a corps of electrical
and mechanical inspectors constantly inspect and test the cars and
their devices, at various places, and another corps of local inspectors
carefully examine every departing and every incoming train with
particular attention to the appearance and deportment of the car
employees and the apparatus for heating, lighting and water.
The Pullman Company is today the greatest single employer of colored
labor in the world. Trained as a race by years of personal service in
various capacities, and by nature adapted faithfully to perform their
duties under circumstances which necessitate unfailing good nature,
solicitude, and faithfulness, the Pullman porters occupy a unique place
in the great fields of employment. There are porters who for over
forty years have been employed by the company, and of all the porters
employed, an army of nearly eight thousand, twenty-five per cent have
been for over ten years in continuous service. The reputation of any
company depends in a large measure on the character of its employees,
and particularly in those concerns which render a personal service to
the general public is it necessary that the standards of the employees
be exceptionally high. Such standards of personal service cannot be
quickly developed; they can be achieved only through years of experience
and the close personal study of the wide range of requirements of those
who are to be served.
To inspire in the car employees, conductors as well as porters, the
ambition to satisfy and please the passenger, rewards of extra pay are
made for unblemished records of courtesy; pensions are provided for the
years that follow their retirement from active service; provision is
made for sick relief, and at regular intervals increases in pay
are awarded with respect to the number of years of continuous and
satisfactory employment.
One characteristic of the Pullman business that is peculiarly
significant is the average length of service of the employees. In a
general way it may truly be said that from the car porter to the highest
official every man who enters the business enters it as a life work. In
most lines of business there is a variety of concerns operating along
similar lines, and it is a natural step for a man to pass up from one
company to another. But the unique position held by the Pullman Company
has eliminated such a situation, and a man entering its employ looks
forward to a personal development in this one concern.
[Illustration: JOHN S. RUNNELLS
President of the Pullman Company]
During the half-century which has seen the sure and perfect development
of this vast and complicated organization it is but natural to expect
among the names of those who have guided its destiny many that must rank
high in the business history of the country. A glance at the list of
past and present Directors of the company confirms the expectation. Here
are the names of men who have found high places in a variety of business
activities not only in Chicago but in other great cities. The list
includes:
George M. Pullman
John Crerar
Norman Williams
Robert Harris
Thomas A. Scott
Amos T. Hall
C. G. Hammond
J. P. Morgan
Marshall Field
J. W. Doane
H. C. Hulbert
O. S. A. Sprague
Henry R. Reed
Norman B. Ream
William K. Vanderbilt
John S. Runnells
Frederick W. Vanderbilt
W. Seward Webb
Robert T. Lincoln
Frank O. Lowden
John J. Mitchell
Chauncey Keep
George F. Baker
John A. Spoor
In this same period but three men have occupied the office of president:
George M. Pullman, the founder of the company, who held office from
1867, the year of incorporation, until his death in 1897, and Robert T.
Lincoln until 1911, when John S. Runnells, the present president, was
elected.
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. Improved each year in its mechanical
construction, amplified in its service, better served by its attendants,
it has set a high standard to the world in the development of railway
travel, and in the fifty years of its development it has contributed
more to the safety, comfort, convenience, and luxury of travelers than
any other similar contribution that has been given to mankind.
INDEX
Berth construction, Mr. Pullman's new and radical, 99, 100
Boudoir cars, the Mann, introduced in Europe, 64, 81
_Bygone Days in Chicago_, its story of the locating of the Pullman
shops, 91
_Chicago Tribune_, the, eulogy of the first Pullman cars, 46
Cleaning the cars, 152-154
Colebrookdale Iron Works, cast the first rails, 4
Construction of Pullman cars, 123-129
_Detroit Commercial Advertiser_, the, comments of, on the hotel car,
49
Dining car, the first designed by Mr. Pullman, 52;
he constructs "The Delmonico," 104;
railroads adopt the, 104;
its operation given up by the Pullman Company, 105
Electric lighting of cars, 112-119;
in England, 113-118
England, introduction of Pullman cars in, 61-63;
reception of cars in, 66;
"The Pullman Limited Express," 68, 69;
electric lighting of Pullman cars in, 113-118
Erie railroad, gets the through Pullman service, 78, 79, 82
Europe, the Pullman car in, 61-69
Flower Sleeping Car Company, 81
Gates Sleeping Car Company, competitor of the Pullman Company, 75
Gauge, railway, standardized, 48
Heating, early, 22, 31;
by locomotive steam, 119
Hotel cars, the first in service, 49, 50, 52, 103;
give way to the diner, 104
_Illinois Journal_, the, comments on the first Pullman cars, 45
_Illinois State Register_, the, describes the new type of car, 43, 44
Knight car, used on eastern roads, 80
Lighting, 31, 112;
the Pintsch light, 82, 112;
electric, 112-119
Linen, requirements to supply the cars, 147-149
Locomotive, the beginnings of the, 5-9;
the American, 11, 12
_London Telegraph_, the, comments on the dining car, 67;
on the introduction of electric lighting in Pullman cars, 115, 116
Mann Boudoir Car Company, incorporated, 81;
acquired by the Pullman Company, 83
Mann, Colonel, designs a sleeping car, 63;
his "boudoir cars" installed in Europe, 64;
his Company acquired by the Pullman Company, 83
Monarch Sleeping Car Company, competitor of the Pullman Company, 84
Napoleon's field carriage, 2, 3
Operation of the Pullman car, the, 133-158
Parlor car, or reclining chair car, the first, 58
Porter, the, of the Pullman car, 155, 156
Presidents and directors of the Pullman Company, 157
Pullman, A. B., assistant of his brother, George M., 47
Pullman car, the first actual, 32-34;
rise of the great industry, 39-58;
first trip of, to the Pacific coast, 53, 54;
first through train from Atlantic to Pacific, 54-57;
in Europe, 61-69;
shop for making, established in Turin, 65;
reception of in England, 66-69;
imitation of, and competition from others, 73-85;
acquires the Mann and Woodruff companies, 83;
wins suits against the Wagner Company, 85;
rapid expansion of business, 89;
locates new shops at Chicago, 89-93;
berth construction for, 99, 100;
vestibuled trains of, 106-111;
electric lighting in, 112-119;
heating of, by locomotive steam, 119;
how the cars are made, 123-129;
the first all-steel, 123ff.;
trucks for, 126;
fittings, 128;
operation of the, 133-158;
travel distances possible for, 136-139, 146;
tickets sold yearly, 140;
linen required for, 147-149;
other furnishings for, 149-151;
cleaning, 152-154;
the working force, 154;
the porters, 155
Pullman, George M., birth and early years, 24, 25;
first activities in Chicago, 26, 27;
first sleeping-car work, 28-32;
his first Pullman car, 32-34;
the second car, 40;
incorporates the Pullman Palace Car Company, 47;
his purpose, 48;
introduces the hotel car, 49;
the first dining car, 52;
visits England, 61;
installs his cars there, 62, 66-69;
establishes shop at Turin, 65;
puts vestibule trains in operation, 84;
locates new shops at Chicago, 89-93;
builds town of Pullman, 93-95;
his radical changes in berth construction, 99, 100;
introduces the dining car, 103-105;
invents the vestibule for trains, 106-110;
his vision and achievement, 135, 158;
president of the company till his death, 157
Pullman Palace Car Company, incorporated, 47;
establishes shops in Detroit, 57;
its business, 137, 140, 141;
list of directors and presidents, 157
_Pullman, The Story of_, quoted, 94, 95
Pullman, the town of, 89-95
_Railroad Gazette_, the, on electric lighting of trains, 113
Railroad restaurants, the oldtime service, 101-103
Railroad transportation, birth of, 1-15
Rails, the first iron, 4
_Railway Review_, the, describes vestibuled trains, 109, 110;
on trial of electric lighting in English trains, 116-118
Railways, the first in England, 4-7;
in America, 7-15;
change gauge to suit Pullman cars, 48
Reclining chair car, or parlor car, the first, 58
Repairs and repair shops, 146
Sleeping car, the evolution of the, 19-35;
the early, 22, 23, 99;
Mr. Pullman's first, 28-32;
rise of the industry, 39-58
Stagecoach, the English, 2-4, 6
Steel, the first all-, Pullman cars, 123ff.
Stephenson, George and Robert, and the first steam engines, 5, 7, 9
_Trans-Continental_, the paper published by Pullman car tourists in
1870, 54
Transportation, birth of railroad, 1-15
Trevithick, Richard, experiments with steam locomotive, 5
Trucks, the, used for Pullman cars, 126
"Twenty minutes for dinner," failure of the system of, 102, 103
Vanderbilts, back the Wagner car, 76, 77, 84, 85
Vestibule invented, 106, 107;
vestibuled trains in service, 109;
trial trip, 110;
welcomed in Mexico, 111
Wagner Palace Car Company, competitor of the Pullman Company, 76-79,
84;
loses to the Pullman Company, 85
Wagner, Webster, founder of the Wagner Palace Car Company, 76
Woodruff sleeping car, 81;
acquired by the Pullman Company, 83
[Transcriber's Notes
All words printed in small capitals have been converted to uppercase
characters.
Duplicate chapter headings have been removed.
The following modifications have been made,
Page 129:
"carrry" changed to "carry"
(will carry from coast to coast)]
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Story of the Pullman Car" ***
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