More ornate interiors. (1) early Pullman parlor car; (2) old type Pullman sleeping car
There are still other reasons why the control of sleeping and parlor service should be delegated to a single company. Due to the vast area embraced by the boundaries of the United States and the wide range of climate which these boundaries contain, there are many railroads which require during certain months of the year a larger number of cars to transport their through passengers than in others. Other roads require an equally great number of sleeping and parlor cars during other months, as for instance those roads which carry the winter tourists to the South and Southwest in winter as opposed to the roads which feel the peak of passenger travel in summer when the vacationists are headed for the Atlantic coast resorts or the northwestern mountains. Again, there are special occasions, like great conventions, when the railroads touching the convention city must have hundreds of sleeping cars above their normal needs.
Few railroads could afford to tie up capital in the cars required for such brief periods of demand; it would be an economic fallacy to pass the expense of the maintenance and constant replacement of such an equipment on to the public. To meet this situation is the mission of the Pullman Company.
Of the numerous sleeping car companies the Gates Sleeping Car Company was perhaps the earliest. This car was named after Mr. G. B. Gates, General Manager of the Lake Shore Road, and with the consolidation of the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central in 1869, these cars, previously only operated on the Lake Shore, were put in the New York, Buffalo, Chicago service.
The latest Pullman parlor car, showing simplicity of modern car decoration, combining quiet elegance with good taste and comfort
Among the various competitors of the Pullman Company, the Wagner Palace Car Company, which succeeded, in 1865, the New York Central Sleeping Car Company, and absorbed in 1869 the Gates Sleeping Car Company, developed by far the widest and most formidable competition and continued its service over the longest period. The underlying reasons for the strength of this competition lay primarily in the fact that the Wagner cars followed more closely the Pullman characteristics, and in fact the infringement of certain basic Pullman patents by the Wagner Company was a cause of frequent litigation over a period of many years. Webster Wagner, the founder of the Wagner Palace Car Company, began his career as a wagon maker. The first cars which he constructed had a single tier of berths, and the bedding was packed away by day in a closet at the end of the car. Commodore Vanderbilt backed Wagner and became interested in his company, a connection which gave Wagner invaluable assistance and a hold on the sleeping-car business of the lines controlled by the Vanderbilt interests, a connection which enabled him for many years to be a keen competitor of the Pullman Company.
Early in June, 1881, suit was brought by the Pullman Palace Car Company against the New York Central Sleeping Car Company and Webster Wagner, claiming $1,000,000 damages for infringement and use of patents in the construction and use of Wagner sleeping coaches. The bill stated that in 1870 the Wagner Company began building sleeping cars, and for several years its coaches ran only on the New York Central Railroad and its various branches. The company finding it impossible to build satisfactory cars without using the Pullman patents, contracted with the Pullman Company to use certain of its patented improvements. This arrangement was made with the distinct understanding that the Wagner Company was to run its cars only over the New York Central Railroad. For five years this arrangement was satisfactorily carried out. But in 1875 the Pullman Company's contract with the Michigan Central Railroad expired and the Wagner Company secured the contract to run the cars between Detroit and Chicago, thus making a through connection for the Vanderbilt lines between New York and Chicago.