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.
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]
One of the first cars built by George M. Pullman
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
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.
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.
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."
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:
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.
The first parlor car, 1875
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.
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.
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.
The rococo period. Extravagance of florid ornamentation and design
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.
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.
More ornate interiors. (1) early Pullman parlor car; (2) old type Pullman sleeping car
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.