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.