After a long day of travel, you've had a fine dinner and enjoyed a nightcap with new friends in a comfortable lounge a short walk from your table. Now you're ready for bed, so you head to your room, also a few steps away. It's small, but not cramped -- a marvel of efficient use of space. You close the door, slip into your night clothes, and wash up. Then you fall into a plush bed with crisp white sheets and and heavy wool blanket. You drift off to sleep in cozy comfort. . . . You're also moving at 70 miles an hour, with your own private window on the passing night. Come morning, you'll be hundreds of miles closer to your destination, maybe even home.
So began the Special Issue of Classic Trains, Pullman: America's Hotel on Wheels (2020, p. 4). This experience of train travel and the image of sleeping in the comfort of a Pullman room, once a major part of railroading, have long since vanished from American culture. Sadly, few people are old enough to remember Pullman cars and the passenger trains they served, and even fewer seem to be interested in modeling them. Indeed, Pullman service adds a fascinating dimension to railroading - especially passenger train operation - that is too good to pass up.
Passenger trains and their equipment were a major factor in the development of the American urban landscape. Union Stations were grand temples of transportation, destinations for all classes of travelers, but the facilities they required to keep trains running in style and comfort were a major part of American city life. Cascadia, my freelanced big city somewhere in the Pacific Northwest in the middle 1950s, centers on its Union Station with its busy postal annex and major express terminal. But it also has coach yards to maintain the passenger cars for the many trains that arrive and depart from Cascadia. With them comes a new center of activity: managing the ebbs and flows of 'America's hotel on wheels.'
Here we take a closer look at the Pullman Company's role in passenger train operations and how Cascadia's new coach yards support them.
The Pullman Company: America's Hotel on Wheels
The expansion of Cascadia Union Station to include a coach yard has been an exciting new development, both for operation and its modeling possibilities. Having disappeared from American railroading more than 55 years ago, Pullman was a major force in passenger train travel for more than a century (1867-1968 to be exact) before then. Although Pullman was a major part of American railroading, it wasn't actually a railroad. Pullman was an essential service to the railroads - the provision, management and servicing of sleeping accommodations, to be exact.
Pullman's role in passenger train travel deserves a closer look, since it adds an interesting dimension to railroading of the 1950s and is fascinating to model on my layout. Operating thousands of cars for 58+ railroads, employing an army of over 10,000 porters, attendants, maids, as well as mechanics, electricians, stenographers, ticket agents and other staff in the mid-50s, Pullman was a major corporation - all before the age of cell phones, internet and computers. Its extensive role in passenger train travel required Pullman to maintain facilities and staff throughout the country - both for its own fleet of heavyweight sleepers and those it operated for the railroads.
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| Powell Street Coach Yard is busy with a Pullman extra section for holiday travelers to Cascadia. The heavyweight 6-3 sleepers come from the Pullman Pool, as designated by their two-tone gray livery. The third car in Illinois Central colors also belongs to the Pool but is released from its IC assignment at the moment, where it reverts back to the Pool. These cars could be serving as a temporary hotel for its passengers or is being readied for their next assignment. |
It is interesting to note that the 1950s is so often thought of as 'the Streamline Era' that it is easy to overlook the fact that heavyweights outnumbered streamline cars in railway - particularly in sleeper car - service. Naturally, the colorful streamliners grabbed the headlines, the advertising and the public imagination as modernism on rails, but it was the heavyweights that became the workhorses of railroads during this period. They showed up on secondary passenger trains like the SP Overland and the UP Portland Rose, mail trains, various regional overnight trains and, more importantly, the era's high number of special trains and extra sections. Southern Pacific's Cascade and Lark, for example, were deluxe streamlined trains at the height of fashion, but extra sections were built from the railroad's pool of heavyweight equipment.
The Pullman Case
How sleeping car service worked in the 1950s is a fascinating study in the logistics of inter-railroad co-operation. The catalyst for this co-operation was the the 1944 U.S. Supreme Court's decision to break up Pullman, Inc. (organized in 1927 as the parent of its holdings, including Pullman-Standard and the Pullman Company) as a monopoly. Until this case, Pullman fully controlled the manufacture, ownership and operation of sleeping cars on American railroads.
In 1940, petitioning on behalf of railroads (namely, ATSF and CB&Q) that wanted to update their fleets with streamlined stainless steel cars from competitor, the Budd Company, the Department of Justice brought suit in Federal Court, eventually landing at the Supreme Court, who handed down its decision in 1944 that Pullman, Inc. was operating as a monopoly as defined by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The Court ordered the breakup of Pullman, Inc. but, because the US was focused on WWII, the planned breakup was delayed until 1947.
In 1947, Pullman agreed to sell its operating division to a consortium of 57 railroads, who would jointly own the operation of sleeping, parlor and restaurant cars under the name, the Pullman Company. As part of this agreement, the railroads would purchase their sleeping cars from Pullman, and on January 1, 1949, sleeping cars would be owned by the railroads, who immediately leased these cars back to the Pullman Company, who maintained, staffed, provisioned and operated these cars. Accordingly, sleeping cars were re-painted to add the railroad's name to the letterboard with Pullman, as shown on my Great Northern Empire Builder sleepers:
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| Typical designation of post-1949 sleeping cars, which display both the owning railroad name, in this case SP&S' contribution to the Empire Builder, and the car's operator, Pullman. |
The decision also made provision for Pullman to own its own fleet of sleepers to be used for fluctuating extra demands, as railroads often came up short for meeting these seasonal and other last-minute demands. According to Joe Welsh, "the opearting company was put up for sale and eventually purchased by a consortium of 57 (later 59) railroads. The 'new' Pullman operating company retained a fleet of more than 2,800 heavyweight cars and 6 lightweights for pool service. The rest of the cars in Pullman service were sold to the various railroads, leased back to the new Pullman operating company, and continued to be operated and maintained by Pullman under contract" ("Empire of Hospitality: The Greatest Name in Rail Travel Wasn't a Railroad at All," Classic Trains, p. 11).
The Pullman Pool - The Great Heavyweight Fleet
As part of this organization, Pullman kept facilities at coach yards and passenger terminals throughout the United States for the maintenance, operation and management of sleeping cars - whether they were railroad owned or part of the 2,800 heavyweights in its Pool. Since it was Pullman who operated these sleeping cars, regardless of ownership, coach yards of the period were a vast sea of different colors and configurations. Railroads and their agents booked sleeping accommodations through Pullman, and the railroads switched the cars in and out of their trains as needs dictated.
A few railroads did not have the resources to buy their sleeping cars from Pullman. In these rare cases, which included the D&RGW, the railroad received a cash settlement for their cars, which belonged to the Pullman Pool. Pictures of heavyweight sleepers in Rio Grande livery for its 'Prospector' and 'Royal Gorge' trains show them to be Pullman, not D&RGW cars. Although this practice has largely been forgotten, it was common with heavyweight sleepers at the time.
Another aspect of the Pullman Pool is that railroads could both contribute to, and draw from the Pool as needed. Southern Pacific, for example, had a surplus of 10-5 sleepers that would show up in the Pool or be leased directly by other railroads. As they replaced the 10-5s with the more desirable 10-6 sleepers, SP leased the 10-5s to other railroads, often with Pullman as its broker. That can explain how a SP sleeper would be painted in B&O colors, for example, but retain its SP designation.
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| Here Southern Pacific 10-5 sleeper, delivered in originally in 1942 for 'The Lark,' SP9205 is painted in B&O colors but retains its SP identity and number. This was common practice for leased cars. |
Similarly, the Pool cars retained their own identity as Pullman-owned. Here's an example:
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| This 6-3 sleeper in Illinois Central Colors is owned by the Pullman Pool but leased for specific assignment to IC, who painted it in its colors to blend into its trains. Note how it is coupled to a Pullman two-tone gray car of the same configuration, both awaiting their next assignment on a Pool-supplied special train. |
Modeling Pullman Movements at Cascadia
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| It's a busy day at Powell Street Coach Yard in early December, 1955. There's a special event in town, and holiday travelers packed a special section of NP's 'Mainstreeter' to Cascadia. Here the string of leased Pullman heavyweights join's NP's assigned 'Chief Many Horns (10-1-1) in the yard. In the distance, a Railway Express Agency reefer and NP baggage-express are stocking the commissary with fresh food and provisions for meeting the special needs of this holiday crowd. |
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| Late in its career is this rare glimpse of sleeper-buffet lounge, 'Lancaster Club' at Powell Street Yard. Pullman offered these Restaurant and buffet lounge cars for economy-minded travelers. This CB&Q-owned car regularly ends up in Pullman Pool assignment late in its career, and it is on the commissary track awaiting its restocking for the journey back to Chicago. |
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| Pullman Pool Car, 'Centessa' is an 8-1-2 heavyweight still wearing its older Pullman Green livery. Well-worn and showing its age, this car is at the end of its long career. Although Pullman began painting its Pool cars two-tone gray in 1953, many of its cars remained in their original green scheme throughout the 1950s until their retirement. |
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| Here UP 12-1 'Hawley' and Chicago & North Western 'Mount Rushmore' are in the lease pool for the NP's extra holiday special. It was common for railroads to lease extra sleepers through the Pullman Pool so that they could generate revenue instead of sitting idle in a yard somewhere. The 12-1 sleeper was the all-purpose sleeper of its time, accommodating tourists, Boy Scouts, school holiday specials and many other trains. Its configuration of 12 sections provided the largest volume of economy passage, while its drawing room was perfect for Scout Master, Head Master, conductor or any other supervisory personnel to keep close charge over the car's occupants. 12-1 sleepers also were useful as crew dorms on many trains. |
Resources on Pullman Operations and Pool Cars
- Joe Welsh & Bill Howes, Travel by Pullman: A Century of Service (St. Paul: MBI, 2004).
- Joe Welsh, Bill Howes & Kevin J. Holland, The Cars of Pullman (Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2010).
- Geoffrey H. Doughty, Great Northern Through Passenger Service In Color (Scotch Plains, NJ: Morning Sun Press, 2014), see pp. 29-30 for details on the Pullman Case and its impact on railroads.
- Pullman: America's Hotel on Wheels, Classic Trains, Holiday 2020.
- An excellent photo collection on Pullmans appearing in Utah in the 1950s and 60s, showing not only the variety but ubiquity of heavyweights in Pullman service during the time can be found online from the Vic Oberhansley Collection: https://donstrack.smugmug.com/UtahRails/Vic-Oberhansley-Photos/Vic-Oberhansley-Pullman-Photos/
- Robert S. Webber, "Heavyweight Pullmans on the Rio Grande," and "Pullman Tourist Cars," The Prospector: The Rigo Grande Modeling & Historical Society, Vol 4, Number 2, Second Quarter 2005: pp. 3-20.
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