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.