Sleeping cars are called Pullman cars, because they are built and owned
by the Pullman Company. For a long time, one sleeping car was just about
like every other. It had two rows of double seats and an aisle going
down the middle. At night, the porter changed each pair of seats into a
lower berth, and he pulled an upper berth down from its storage-place in
the wall. Then he made the beds and hung green curtains from the ceiling
to the floor all along the aisle.
[Illustration]
People who slept in upper berths climbed up and down a ladder. A button
in each berth flashed on a light to call the porter. A little hammock
hung against the wall. In it, you put your clothes and small packages.
Your shoes went on the floor beneath the berths, so the porter could
shine them while you slept. At the ends of the car were dressing-rooms
and toilets.
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Many Pullman cars are still built like that. And it’s still fun to climb
the ladder to the upper berth. But more and more people are travelling
in different kinds of sleeping cars. One kind is called a duplex. It has
peculiar looking checkerboard windows outside. Inside are little private
rooms, some on the lower level, some on the top level, with stairs
leading to a corridor along the side. The rooms have sofa seats for
daytime. At night, when you pull a handle in the wall, out slides a bed
all made up and ready to be slept in.
Another kind of sleeping car, called a roomette, has a row of small
rooms all on one level. Each room has its folding bed. There’s also a
washbowl, toilet and clothes closet. An air-conditioner switch will make
the room warmer or cooler, and you can even turn on a radio.
[Illustration]
Roomettes are big enough for only one person. But several kinds of
Pullman car rooms have beds for two or three people. Some are called
drawing rooms. Others are called compartments. They have arm chairs as
well as sofas. And connecting double bedrooms can be turned into a
traveling home for a whole family.