Several questions about Pullman cars.
Would an open ended observation car be labeled as a Pullman?
Is a Pullman 14 section car a sleeper or a coach?
Recently saw an add for an ATSF heavyweight car labeled a “chair car.” Is this a coach or a differenr type of “Pullman” car?
RicZ
A pullman car was a car built by the Pullman Company. So forquestion one: maybe
Sometimes. Some roads had parlor cars and even coaches that were not owned or operated by Pullman but had open end platforms.
A section was the most economical “space” sold by Pullman. It is considered a sleeper. The lower was higher than an upper and you could pay a little extra for “single occupancy” and be the sole occupant. The upper berth wouldn’t be made up and you had both seats to yourself during daytime.
Pullman_0001 by Edmund, on Flickr
In the late '30s the roomette was developed and quickly became popular which hastened the demise of the open section although some sections were run right up to Amtrak in '71 and even later in Canada and Mexico.
Pullman_Roomette by Edmund, on Flickr
Chair Car seemed to be adopted more by the western roads probably due to the longer distances traveled and “selling” the idea of greater comfort. There were “day coaches” that had somewhat rigid, higher density seating. You sometimes hear the term “walkover” seat meaning one that can be easily and quickly flipped for a return trip.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/24r93UV][img]https://live.staticflickr.com
Interesting question. A lot of the heavyweight observation cars included sleeping accomodations. As far as I can tell, they were owned by Pullman until the whole anti-trust thing put a stop to Pullman ownership.
Explaining the “as far as I can tell part” – First I checked the Canada Southern roster of heavyweight (New York Central) cars:
https://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/NYC-MODELS-PASS-PULLMAN.htm
It lists several models of observation cars under a heading that indicates they were owned by Pullman until the sale in 1948.
I also double-checked some of the observation car plan numbers against the Pullman project database:
http://www.pullmanproject.com/Database.htm
It indicates some of these plans in standard Pullman paint. So from this, I think the evidence points to these being Pullman cars.
Interestingly, the CS NYC list also includes some cars that did not have sleeping accomodations – for example, Plan 3961A & B cars, outfitted as parlor/buffet/lounge/obs. If I am reading CS and the Pullman Project database correctly, these floor plans started out as Pullman-owned cars.
Interestingly, the CS lists shows several (obs and non-obs) cars with only one sleeping accomodation (for example, Plan 3416, 28 parlor chairs and one drawing room) as being sold to NYC in 1942, indicating a) Pullman ownership and b) transfer to the railroads before 1942.
Ed addressed this, and I would add that, from what I have read, I believe these 14-section cars (and perhaps 12-1 cars) could be operated as day coaches when need be, but they were indeed sleeping cars.
HTH
Aaron
I thought walkovers were the seats with a backrest that could be easily flipped from one side to the other (as still used on NJ Transit coaches today) – as opposed to seats that had a more elaborate reversal process. Am I wrong? (Entirely possible, as I’m not sure where my notion of walkovers came from.)
Aaron
The Mason Rocker that was illustrated is a true ‘walkover’ – the reversal involves the seat back being flipped up and over (if you look carefully you can see that it is symmetrical) so what was the ‘bottom’ of the seat back is now at the top. The kind of seats you remember have hinged backs that are pulled to one side or the other and are ‘upholstered’ (or caned, or plasticked, or whatever you want to call them) so that the ‘back’ now becomes the ‘front’.
Ed will have lavish details of different approaches to car chairs that were developed in the ‘golden age’ of streamliners – the Sleepy Hollow seat being one of the more famous makes. Some of these were arranged so they ‘pivoted’ on a turntable arrangement, and were ‘walked around’ rather than walked-over to reverse their direction – usually in pairs. Some of these designs had fairly complex articulated leg supports that hinged out quite delightfully so that when you reclined the seat back you could get the next best thing to a sleeper…
I believe most chair cars were railroad-owned, an ‘upgrade’ for coach passengers that didn’t want to have to pay a Pullman accommodation charge.