By this new routing of the Wagner cars direct from New York to Chicago and the elimination of the Pullman cars from the Chicago and Detroit service, an opportunity offered for some other road to avail itself of the Pullman service and effect a through Pullman service between New York and Chicago.
The Erie was the road that grasped the opportunity. By arrangements with the Baltimore & Ohio and several other roads, through Erie trains between New York and Chicago, comprising Pullman hotel coaches, sleeping cars and drawing room cars were put in service on November 1, 1875. A circular published in Chicago announcing the new arrangement said:
From the first of November, the Pullman hotel and drawing room coaches, for many years so popular on the Michigan Central line, will be withdrawn from that route, and with new and increased improvements will thereafter run exclusively on the Erie and Chicago line, forming the first and only Pullman hotel coach line between Chicago and New York.
The success of the new Erie Pullman coaches was immediately assured. The hotel cars especially were a great attraction. These were divided into two compartments, in one of which the kitchen was located, the other compartment being utilized as a sleeping car. First-class meals, including all manner of game and seasonable delicacies, were served on movable tables placed in the sections. In fact, the New York Tribune, in commenting on the new Pullman equipment, asked: "Should the Erie have a monopoly of such comforts? Why does not Wagner imitate or improve upon Pullman?"
These cars were nicknamed "French Flats."
All the modern conveniences of a first-class house are condensed into one of these hotels on wheels. The beds at night are put away to make room for spacious seats by day, between which a table is placed, covered with damask cloths and napkins folded in quaint devices, at which four may sit with ease. The whole car—a Pullman—is luxuriously fitted up, and one end is partitioned into a storeroom and kitchen; there is a smoking-room for lovers of the weed, and a separate toilet room for ladies. As the porter of the car blackens the boots, and there is a telegraph office at each stopping place, the waggish question of "Where is the barber shop?" is often made. But this may come, too, as last summer an excursion party of ladies and gentlemen took a hair-dresser with them over the Erie to Niagara Falls, and two or three ladies actually had their hair crimped while traveling thirty or forty miles an hour! At this time, while game is plenty in the West, the Pullmans, with their facilities, and two fast trains each way per day, are able to make a bill of fare and serve it in a style which would cause Delmonico to wring his hands in anguish. The service is on the European plan; that is, you pay for what you order, and we give the prices of the principal articles, to show at what a reasonable rate one can take a superior meal of fifty or a hundred miles long: Prairie chicken, pheasant, and woodcock, whole, $1; snipe, quail, golden plover and blue-winged teal, each 75 cents; venison, 60 cents; chicken, whole, 75 cents; cold tongue, ham, and corned beef, 30 cents; sardines, lobster, and broiled ham or bacon, 40 cents; mutton and lamb chops, veal cutlets, or half a chicken, 50 cents; sirloin steak, 50 cents, &c. Every traveler who has missed his dinner to catch a train will rejoice in knowing that a warm meal awaits him at the cars, and that he can wake up in the morning and choose his time for breakfast, instead of bolting it down at the twenty minutes' convenience of the railroad company.[2]
Some time prior to 1861 sleeping cars were being operated over the Camden & Amboy and Baltimore & Ohio railroads. These cars were known as "Knight" cars, after their designer, E. C. Knight. The "Knights" were built at a cost of about $7,000, and were regarded as the handsomest things on wheels. As in the bunk cars, all of which found their model in the sleeping arrangements of the canal boat, the berths were only on one side of the car and consisted of a triple tier of two double and one single berth; an arrangement later changed to one double and two single berths.
The Woodruff sleeping car also was designed about this time by T. T. Woodruff, Master Car Builder of the Terre Haute & Alton Railroad. In this car both sides of the car were utilized as in the Pullman car, and the sleeping accommodations consisted of twelve sections, six on a side. A company was formed to operate the Woodruff cars in 1871, with a capital of $100,000.
The Flower Sleeping Car Company was another characteristic competitor. This short-lived company was organized in 1882 in Bangor, Maine, with a capital of $500,000. The seats in this new car were placed in the middle instead of on the sides of the cars, thus leaving an aisle on each side instead of one in the center. Claims were made that a freer circulation of air would result, and a news item of the Times further recommended this unique construction as more convenient to families, the berths being so arranged, side by side, that two could be made up into a double bed.
Mann's Boudoir Car Company was incorporated in 1883, with a capital of $1,000,000, and experienced considerable popularity due to their unique arrangement, which has been described in a previous chapter.