The Story of the Pullman Car

by Joseph Husband

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.

The rococo period. Extravagance of florid ornamentation and design

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.

CHAPTER V
THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

One of the most interesting elements in the history of the Pullman car and the Pullman Company is the story of imitation and competition which for a period after the foundation of the parent company thrived and later disappeared. The success of the Pullman car necessarily brought competition. It was wholesome that such competition should arise. If a car more convenient than the car of Mr. Pullman's invention could be devised, it was right that it should be given the test of public opinion. That no car constructed along different basic lines survived, established the right of the Pullman car to its preeminence. That certain cars patterned after Mr. Pullman's basic ideas, and in most cases directly infringing on his patents, received a degree of popularity again reflects creditably to the Pullman car.

Distinct from the innovations afforded by Pullman car construction, the universal service of the Company afforded the public a new service of equal value. Where formerly it was necessary for the traveler to change from car to car whenever and wherever one railroad connected with another line, the uniform service of the Pullman Company created a new and infinitely more desirable situation, for it was now possible to travel without inconvenience or interruption between practically any two points in the country regardless of the number of different railroads over whose tracks the traveler's ticket required passage. By competition, the value of such a service was tested; tested alike by the individual railroads and their patrons. That each and every competing company ultimately retired from the field, and that practically every railroad in the United States has today contracted with the Pullman Company for its standardized service, is tacit recognition to the worth of the service rendered.