it to carrying out an idea which he had conceived, of organizing
a system by which passengers could be carried in luxurious cars
of uniform pattern, adequate to the wants of both night and day
travel, which would run through without change between far-distant
points and over a number of distinct lines of railway, in charge of
responsible through agents, to whom ladies, children, and invalids
could be safely intrusted. This system was especially adapted to
a country of such geographical extent as America. It supplied an
important want, and the travelling public and the railways were
prompt to avail themselves of its advantages.
Parlor or drawing-room cars were next introduced for day runs,
which added greatly to the luxury of travel, enabling passengers
to secure seats in advance, and enjoy many comforts which were
not found in ordinary cars. Sleeping and parlor cars were soon
recognized as an essential part of a railway's equipment and became
known as "palace cars."
The Wagner Car Company was organized in the State of New York, and
was early in the field in furnishing this class of vehicles. It has
supplied all the cars of this kind used upon the Vanderbilt system
of railways and a number of its connecting roads. Several smaller
palace-car companies have also engaged in the business at different
times. A few roads have operated their own cars of this class, but
the business is generally regarded as a specialty, and the railway
companies recognize the advantages and conveniences resulting from
the ability of a large car-company to meet the irregularities
of travel, which require a large equipment at one season and a
small one at another, to furnish an additional supply of cars for
a sudden demand, and to perform satisfactorily the business of
operating through cars in lines composed of many different railways.
[Illustration: Pullman Parlor Car.]
Next came a demand for cars in which meals could be served. Why,
it was said, should a train stop at a station for meals any more
than a steam-boat tie up to a wharf for the same purpose? The
Pullman Company now introduced the hotel-car, which was practically
a sleeping-car with a kitchen and pantries in one end and portable
tables which could be placed between the seats of each section and
upon which meals could be conveniently served. The first hotel-car
was named the "President," and was put into service on the Great
Western Railway of Canada, in 1867, and soon after several popular
lines were equipped with this new addition to the luxuries of
travel.
[Illustration: Wagner Parlor Car.]
After this came the dining-car, which was still another step beyond
the hotel-car. It was a complete restaurant, having a large kitchen
and pantries in one end, with the main body of the car fitted up as
a commodious dining-room, in which all the passengers in the train
could enter and take their meals comfortably. The first dining-car
was named the "Delmonico," and began running on the Chicago & Alton
Railroad in the year 1868.
The comforts and conveniences of travel by rail on the main lines
now seemed to have reached their culmination in America. The heavy
T-rails had replaced the various forms previously used; the
improved fastenings, the reductions in curvature, and the greater
care exercised in construction had made the trip delightfully
smooth, while the improvements in rolling-stock had obviated the
jerking, jolting, and oscillation of the cars. The roadbeds had
been properly ditched, drained, and ballasted with broken stone or
gravel, the dust overcome, the sparks arrested, and cleanliness,
that attribute which stands next to godliness, had at last been
made possible, even on a railway train.
[Illustration: Dining-car (Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad.)]
The heating of cars was not successfully accomplished till a method
was devised for circulating hot water through pipes running near
the floor. The suffering from that bane of the traveller--cold
feet--was then obviated and many a doctor's bill saved. The loss
of human life from the destruction of trains by fires originating
from stoves aroused such a feeling throughout the country that the
legislatures of many States have passed laws within the last three
years prohibiting the use of stoves, and the railway managers have
been devising plans for heating the trains with steam furnished
from the boiler of the locomotive. The inventive genius of the
people was at once brought into requisition, and several ingenious
devices are now in use which successfully accomplish the purpose
in solid trains with the locomotive attached, but the problem of
heating a detached car without some form of furnace connected with
it is still unsolved.
But notwithstanding the high standard of excellence which had been
reached in the construction and operation of passenger trains,
there was one want not yet supplied, the importance of which did
not become fully recognized until dining-cars were introduced,
and men, women, and children had to pass across the platforms of
several cars in order to reach the one in which the meals were
served. An act which passengers had always been cautioned against,
and forbidden to undertake--the crossing of platforms while the
train is in motion--now became necessary, and was invited by the
railway companies.
It was soon seen that a safe covered passageway between the cars
must be provided, particularly for limited express trains. Crude
attempts had been made in this direction at different times. As
early as the years 1852 and 1855 patents were taken out for devices
which provided for diaphragms of canvas to connect adjoining cars
and form a passageway between them. These were applied to cars on
the Naugatuck Railroad, in Connecticut, in 1857, but they were used
mainly for purposes of ventilation, to provide for taking in air at
the head of the train, so as to permit the car windows to be kept
shut, to avoid the dust that entered through them when they were
open. These appliances were very imperfect, did not seem to be of
any practical advantage, even for the limited uses for which they
were intended, and they were abandoned after a trial of about four
years.
In the year 1886 Mr. Pullman went practically to work to devise
a perfect system for constructing continuous trains, and at the
same time to provide for sufficient flexibility in connecting the
passageways to allow for the motion consequent upon the rounding
of curves. His efforts resulted in what is now known as the
"vestibuled" train.
[Illustration: Pullman Vestibuled Cars.]
[Illustration: End View of a Vestibuled Car.]
This invention, which was patented in 1887, succeeded not only in
supplying the means of constructing a perfectly enclosed vestibule
of handsome architectural appearance between the cars, but it
accomplished what is even still more important, the introduction
of a safety appliance more valuable than any yet devised for the
protection of human life in case of collisions. The elastic
diaphragms which are attached to the ends of the cars have steel
frames, the faces or bearing surfaces of which are pressed firmly
against each other by powerful spiral springs, which create
a friction upon the faces of the frames, hold them firmly in
position, prevent the oscillation of the cars, and furnish a
buffer extending from the platform to the roof which precludes
the possibility of one platform "riding" the other and producing
telescoping in case of collision. The first of the vestibuled
trains went into service on the Pennsylvania Railroad in June,
1886, and they are rapidly being adopted by railway companies.
The vestibuled limited trains contain several sleeping-cars, a
dining-car, and a car fitted up with a smoking saloon, a library
with books, desks, and writing materials, a bath-room, and a
barber-shop. With a free circulation of air throughout the
train, the cars opening into each other, the electric light, the
many other increased comforts and conveniences introduced, the
steam-heating apparatus avoiding the necessity of using fires, the
great speed, and absence of stops at meal-stations, this train
is the acme of safe and luxurious travel. An ordinary passenger
travels in as princely a style in these cars as any crowned head in
Europe in a royal special train.
The speed of passenger trains has shown steady improvement from
year to year. In the month of June in our Centennial year, 1876,
a train ran from New York to San Francisco, a distance of 3,317
miles, in 83 hours and 27 minutes actual time, thus averaging
about 40 miles an hour, but during the trip it crossed four
mountain-summits, one of them over 8,000 feet high. This train ran
from Jersey City to Pittsburg over the Pennsylvania Railroad, a
distance of 444 miles, without making a stop. In 1882 locomotives
were introduced which made a speed of 70 miles per hour.
[Illustration: Pullman Sleeper on a Vestibuled Train.]
In July, 1885, an engine with a train of three cars made a trip
over the West Shore road which is the most extraordinary one on
record. It started from East Buffalo, N. Y., at 10.04 A.M., and
reached Weehawken, N. J., at 7.27 P.M. Deducting the time consumed
in stops, the actual running time was 7 hours and 23 minutes, or
an average of 56 miles per hour. Between Churchville and Genesee
Junction this train attained the unparalleled speed of 87 miles per
hour, and at several other parts of the line a speed of from 70 to
80 miles an hour. The superior physical characteristics of this
road were particularly favorable for the attainment of the speed
mentioned.
The trains referred to were special or experimental trains, and
while American railways have shown their ability to record the
highest speed yet known, they do not run their trains in regular
service as fast as those on the English railways. The meteor-like
names given to our fast trains are somewhat misleading. When one
reads of such trains as the "Lightning," the "Cannonball," the
"Thunderbolt," and the "G--whiz-z," the suggestiveness of the
titles is enough to make one's head swim, but, after all, the names
are not as significant of speed as the British "Flying Scotchman"
and the "Wild Irishman;" for the former do not attain an average
rate of 40 miles an hour, while the latter exceed 45 miles. A
few American trains, however, those between Jersey City and
Philadelphia, for instance, make an average speed of over 50 miles
per hour.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Immigrant Sleeping-car (Canadian Pacific Railway.)]
The transportation of immigrants has recently received increased
facilities for its accommodation upon the principal through lines.
Until late years economically constructed day-cars were alone used,
but in these the immigrants suffered great discomfort in long
journeys. An immigrant sleeper is now used, which is constructed
with sections on each side of the aisle, each section containing
two double berths. The berths are made with slats of hard wood
running longitudinally; there is no upholstery in the car, and
no bedding supplied, and after the car is vacated the hose can be
turned in upon it, and all the wood-work thoroughly cleansed. The
immigrants usually carry with them enough blankets and wraps to
make them tolerably comfortable in their berths; a cooking stove
is provided in one end of the car, on which the occupants can cook
their food, and even the long transcontinental journeys of the
immigrants are now made without hardship.
[Illustration: View of Pullman, Ill.]
The manufacture of railway passenger cars is a large item of
industry in the country. The tendency had been for many years to
confine the building of ordinary passenger coaches to the shops
owned by the railway companies, and they made extensive provision
for such work; but recently they have given large orders for that
class of equipment to outside manufacturers. This has resulted
partly from the large demand for cars, and partly on account of
the excellence of the work supplied by some of the manufacturing
companies. In 1880 the Pullman Company erected the most extensive
car-works in the world at Pullman, fourteen miles south of Chicago;
and, besides its extensive output of Pullman cars and freight
equipment, it has built for railway companies large numbers of
passenger coaches. The employees now number about 5,000, and an
idea of the capacity and resources of the shops may be obtained
from the fact that one hundred freight cars, of the kind known
as flat cars, have been built in eight hours. The business
of car-building has therefore given rise to the first model
manufacturing town in America, and it is an industry evidently
destined to increase as rapidly as any in the country.
The transportation of baggage has always been a most important
item to the traveller, and the amount carried seems to increase in
proportion to the advance in civilization. The original allowance
of fourteen pounds is found to be increased to four hundred when
ladies start for fashionable summer-resorts.
America has been much more liberal than other countries to the
traveller in this particular, as in all others. Here few of the
roads charge for excess of baggage unless the amount be so large
that patience with regard to it ceases to be a virtue.
The earlier method, of allowing each passenger to pick out his own
baggage at his point of destination and carry it off, resulted in
a lack of accountability which led to much confusion, frequent
losses, and heavy claims upon the companies in consequence.
Necessity, as usual, gave birth to invention, and the difficulty
was at last solved by the introduction of the system known as
"checking." A metal disk bearing a number and designating on its
face the destination of the baggage was attached to each article
and a duplicate given to the owner, which answered as a receipt,
and upon the presentation and surrender of which the baggage could
be claimed. Railways soon united in arranging for through checks
which, when attached to baggage, would insure its being sent safely
to distant points over lines composed of many connecting roads. The
check system led to the introduction of another marked convenience
in the handling of baggage--the baggage express or transfer
company. One of its agents will now check trunks at the passenger's
own house and haul them to the train. Another agent will take up
the checks aboard the train as it is nearing its destination, and
see that the baggage is delivered at any given address.
The cases in which pieces go astray are astonishingly rare, and
some roads found the claims for lost articles reduced by five
thousand dollars the first year after adopting the check system,
not to mention the amount saved in the reduced force of employees
engaged in assorting and handling the baggage. Its workings are
so perfect and its conveniences so great that an American cannot
easily understand why it is not adopted in all countries; but he is
forced to recognize the fact that it seems destined to be confined
to his own land. The London railway managers, for instance, give
many reasons for turning their faces against its adoption. They say
that there are few losses arising from passengers taking baggage
that does not belong to them; that most of the passengers take a
cab at the end of their railway journey to reach their homes, and
it costs but little more to carry their trunk with them; that in
this way it gets home as soon as they, while the transfer company,
or baggage express, would not deliver it for an hour or two later;
that the cab system is a great convenience, and any change which
would diminish its patronage would gradually reduce the number of
cabs, and these "gondolas of London" would have to increase their
charges or go out of business. It is very easy to find a stick when
one wants to hit a dog, and the European railway officials seem
never to be at a loss for reasons in rejecting the check system.
Coupon tickets covering trips over several different railways
have saved the traveller all the annoyance once experienced in
purchasing separate tickets from the several companies representing
the roads over which he had to pass. Their introduction
necessitated an agreement among the principal railways of the
country and the adoption of an extensive system of accountability
for the purpose of making settlements of the amounts represented by
the coupons.
[Illustration: In a Baggage-room.]
Like every other novelty the coupon ticket, when first introduced,
did not hit the mark when aimed at the understanding of certain
travellers. A United States Senator-elect had come on by sea from
the Pacific Coast who had never seen a railroad till he reached the
Atlantic seaboard. With a curiosity to test the workings of the new
means of transportation, of which he had heard so much, he bought
a coupon ticket and set out for a railway journey. He entered a
car, took a seat next to the door, and was just beginning to get
the "hang of the school-house" when the conductor, who was then
not uniformed, came in, cried "Tickets!" and reached out his hand
toward the Senator. "What do you want of me?" said the latter.
"I want your ticket," answered the conductor. Now it occurred to
the Senator that this might be a very neat job on the part of an
Eastern ticket-sharp, but it was just a little too thin to fool
a Pacific Coaster, and he said: "Don't you think I've got sense
enough to know that if I parted with my ticket right at the start I
wouldn't have anything to show for my money during the rest of the
way? No, sir, I'm going to hold on to this till I get to the end of
the trip."
"Oh!" said the conductor, whose impatience was now rising to fever
heat, "I don't want to take up your ticket, I only want to look at
it."
[Illustration: Railway Station at York, England, built on a curve.]
The Senator thought, after some reflection, that he would risk
letting the man have a peep at it, anyhow, and held it up before
him, keeping it, however, at a safe distance. The conductor, with
the customary abruptness, jerked it out of his hand, tore off the
first coupon, and was about to return the ticket, when the Pacific
Coaster sprang up, threw himself upon his muscle, and delivered
a well-directed blow of his fist upon the conductor's right eye,
which landed him sprawling on one of the opposite seats. The other
passengers were at once on their feet, and rushed up to know the
cause of the disturbance. The Senator, still standing with his arms
in a pugnacious attitude, said:
"Maybe I've never ridden on a railroad before, but I'm not going to
let any sharper get away with me like that."
[Illustration: Outside the Grand Central Station, New York.]
"What's he done?" cried the passengers.
"Why," said the Senator, "I paid seventeen dollars and a half for
a ticket to take me through to Cincinnati, and before we're five
miles out that fellow slips up and says he wants to see it, and
when I get it out, he grabs hold of it and goes to tearing it up
right before my eyes." Ample explanations were soon made, and the
new passenger was duly initiated into the mysteries of the coupon
system.
The uniforming of railway employees was a movement of no little
importance. It designated the various positions held by them, added
much to the neatness of their appearance, enabled passengers to
recognize them at a glance, and made them so conspicuous that it
impressed them with a greater sense of responsibility and aided
much in effecting a more courteous demeanor to passengers.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Boston Passenger Station, Providence Division, Old
Colony Railroad.]
Many conveniences have been introduced which greatly assist the
passenger when travelling upon unfamiliar roads. Conspicuous
clock-faces stand in the stations with their hands set to the hour
at which the next train is to start, sign-boards are displayed with
horizontal slats on which the stations are named at which departing
way-trains stop, and employees are stationed to call out necessary
information and direct passengers to the proper entrances, exits,
and trains. A "bureau of information" is now to be seen in large
passenger-stations, in which an official sits and with a Job-like
patience repeats to the curiously inclined passengers the whole
railway catechism, and successfully answers conundrums that would
stump an Oriental pundit.
The energetic passenger-agent spares no pains to thrust information
directly under the nose of the public. He uses every means known to
Yankee ingenuity to advertise his regular trains and his excursion
business, including large newspaper head-lines, corner-posters,
curb-stone dodgers, and placards on the breast and back of the
itinerant human sandwich who perambulates the streets.
Railway accidents have always been a great source of anxiety to the
managers, and the shocks received by the public when great loss of
life occurs from such causes deepen the interest which the general
community feels in the means taken to avoid these distressing
occurrences.
American railway officials have made encouraging progress in
reducing the number and the severity of accidents, and while the
record is not so good on many of our cheaply constructed roads, our
first-class roads now show by their statistics that they compare
favorably in this respect with the European companies.
The statistics regarding accidents[26] are necessarily unreliable,
as railway companies are not eager to publish their calamities
from the house-tops, and only in those States in which prompt
reports are required to be made by law are the figures given at
all accurately. Even in these instances the yearly reports lead to
wrong conclusions, for the State Railroad Commissioners become more
exacting each year as to the thoroughness of the reports called
for, and the results sometimes show an increase compared with
previous years, whereas there may have been an actual decrease.
In 1880, the last census year, an effort was made to collect
statistics of this kind covering all the railways in the United
States, with the following result:
------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+-------
| Through causes | Through | |
To whom | beyond their | their own | Aggregate. | Total
happened. | control. | carelessness. | | acci-
+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+ dents.
|Killed.|Injured.|Killed.|Injured.|Killed.|Injured.|
------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------
Passengers | 61 | 331 | 82 | 213 | 143 | 544 | 687
Employees | 261 | 1,004 | 663 | 2,613 | 924 | 3,617 | 4,541
All others | 43 | 103 | 1,429 | 1,348 | 1,472 | 1,451 | 2,923
Unspecified | | | | | 3 | 62 | 65
+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------
Total | 365 | 1,438 | 2,174 | 4,174 | 2,542 | 5,674 | 8,216
------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------
[Illustration: "Show Your Tickets!"
(Passenger Station, Philadelphia.)]
Mulhall, in his "Dictionary of Statistics," an English work, uses
substantially these same figures and makes the following comparison
between European and American railways:
_Accidents to Passengers, Employees, and Others._
---------------+---------+----------+--------+-------------
| | | | Per million
| Killed. | Wounded. | Total. | passengers.
---------------+---------+----------+--------+-------------
United States | 2,349 | 5,867 | 8,216 | 41.1
United Kingdom | 1,135 | 3,959 | 5,094 | 8.1
Europe | 3,213 | 10,859 | 14,072 | 10.8
---------------+---------+----------+--------+-------------