The first sleeping cars had rows of hard double-decker and even triple-decker bunks, with a stove at each end. Passengers brought their own blankets and pillows, and their own candles to see by. Nobody really slept much.
Trains were uncomfortable—even dangerous. But people needed them, and they were excited about them, too. All over the country men built new railroads as fast as they could. Each new company built as it pleased, and trains owned by one company didn’t run over another’s tracks. Of course, that meant you had to change trains often—wherever one railroad line stopped and another began. There were no railroad bridges over rivers, either. So you got off and took a ferry across.
One by one, men made inventions for trains, so that traveling became safer and more comfortable. Engines began to burn coal instead of wood. A piece of wire screen in the smokestack stopped the flying sparks, although cinders came through—and they still do to this very day. Coaches and sleepers had softer seats, but they were still noisy for a long time because they had wooden bodies that creaked while the wheels clattered along.
Thirsty travelers at first had to buy drinks from the water boy who walked back and forth through the train. Later, cars had a tank of water and one glass for everyone to use. The glass sat in a rack, and it had a round bottom so that it wouldn’t be of much use to a passenger who was tempted to steal it.
Lots of things about trains were different in the old days, but one thing was the same. They were just as much fun to ride in then as they are now.
RAILROADING TALK
Here are more of the slang words that railroaders have made up:
BALLING THE JACK—this is what they say when they mean a train is going very fast. Highballing means the same thing.