Pullmans and Passenger Sets

Is there a vestibule or something that fits between the car diaphragms? That's a big gap that I've not noticed on this "model" before.

Nope, big gap for sure. The passengers have to get a running start and make the jump.

      Bill

amich35, an eclectic collection indeed. Alfred

There are also some great books on Pullman out there, including ones about the infamous 1890s strike, Pullman porters and their role in the Civil Rights movement, and t several about the Pullman system during the golden era of train travel, including Night Trains: The Pullman Systems in the Golden Years of American Rail Travel, Travel by Pullman: A Century of Service, and The Cars of Pullman.  And if you're in Chicago and enjoy archives, the Newberry Library contains the Pullman collection: archives.newberry.org/repositories/2/resources/1126

I'm writing a book about a Pullman Service Inspector who said that in 1940, he was in every state 5 times over the course of the year.

... and if you are interested in first person accounts of working for Pullman you might be interested in these










and



The first two are quite old. I suspect you can probably find them over on the Project Gutenberg site.  By way of introducing these two I'll offer the following:

The Reminiscences of a Pullman Conductor (Published 1901) is a colorful summation of the types of individual passengers Mr. Holderness encountered during his tenure as conductor on a Pullman Palace car.



Through the prose of Mr. Holderness the reader is introduced to travelers such as:

The Chronic Kicker – a constant complainer who, as one might expect, is never satisfied with the service and makes it a point to note the names of the conductor and the assigned porter.

The Commercial Traveler – of a type who imagines he cuts such an imposing figure as to be irresistible to any single traveling lady and who, in spite of endless rebuffs, fails to appreciate his actual status as far as women are concerned.

Newly Married Couples – those that slip quietly into the car and those that are assailed with thrown rice and loudly voiced wishes of safe travel by wedding party members who have accompanies them to the station platform and into the car itself before departure.



People who try to smuggle pets on board without paying for their passage in the Palace car – there are several of these most notable is the Lady with the Parrott.



There is a discussion of sleeping car morals – just like today one-night stands were a fact of life back in 1901 too.



Then there are the millionaires – real and wannabes. There’s the Old Couple with the Lunch Basket, The Jolly Passenger, Deadheads, Inebriates, The Immigrant Family, and many more.



The authors prose runs the gamut of written expression, humor, condescension, critical, resigned, bemused and all the rest.

The book is a quick read and the author’s writing style is easy on the eye. I wouldn’t consider this book a must read but I didn’t mind spending some time listening to Mr. Holderness tell me about his passengers.



 Flying Sparks (Published 1914) is a running commentary on the towns and places his Missouri Pacific passenger train ,the Hot Springs Express, passed on the 578 mile run from Kansas City, Missouri to Hot Springs, Arkansas with a track route that runs through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. He originally wrote this as a future letter to his young niece to whom the book is dedicated.



The commentary is a compilation of facts/short histories about various towns (population, major commerce, general appearances, who founded the town, etc.) as well as descriptions/brief histories of various lengths concerning famous and infamous individuals who were either living or had lived in the towns and places along the right-of-way.



Flying Sparks starts at the very beginning of the run. “ At 6 P.M. I go down to my train No.119, Line 3296. We have from eight to ten cars, and a 5500-type of engine, one of the best types of passenger engines the Missouri Pacific has . This is the Hot Springs Express, one of the fastest and best trains out of Kansas City for the South, having dining car service with through train to Hot Springs, making sixteen station stops at county-seat towns only, in the 578-mile run.”



The book is 159 pages in length and has a number of pictures of people and places described. The actual description of the trip is from pages 19-101. This is prefaced with table of contents, a synopsis with a list of the towns which receive more than a notice of passing, and a list of illustrations. Pages 102-159 consist of a brief account of the daily work routine of a Pullman Conductor, a collection of jokes, the author’s favorite quotes from Marcus Aurelius, a collection of poems, and a final note from the author in the form of a request to the reader to recommend but not loan the book to others.