In 1935 a compartment for two people Chicago to San Francisco or Los Angeles cost $66.53 per person plus $44.50 for the compartment.
So, trains with a door (Usually with a window) into a hallway with two facing benches wasn’t a thing in US trains? That’s what I was picturing. That might be more a european train thing maybe.
A berth room would work just as well. I wanted somewhere they knew they could get privacy (because of the transformation). Having a room that they’d possibly have to share with someone else wouldn’t really work, so mabye they’d have to get both beds.
@Timz: So it’d cost around $177.56?
Explanation of the Pullman Section sleepers
Diagram of a 6 bedroom lounge car
If you bought a private room in a sleeper in this country, you did not have to share it with a stranger; the entire room was yours for the trip. The same holds now with Amtrak accommodations. If you bought only a lower berth, someone else may occupy the upper berth (and if you bought only an upper, someone else may well occupy the lower)
I know of no private rooms that had windows on the aisle side in this country.
I think I’m picturing trains from british movies/tv shows.
That diagram is exactly the sortof thing I was looking for, Googling I was having trouble finding something like that.
Agan, thanks for all the help!
For two adults in a compartment San Francisco to Chicago in 1935. Probably the same Seattle to Chicago, but can’t guarantee that.
I don’t know about Viewliners, but the bedrooms in Superliners have a large window in the sliding door that allows you to see across the aisle when the curtain is pulled back.
You are right about the Amtrak sleepers. If you have a Superliner bedroom, you an look out the windows on both sides and still have some privacy.
I was thinking about the Pullman cars which were in use back then.
Yup, very European / British.
Berths aren’t rooms. They’re open sections. The only divider is when the seats are made up into beds, there’d be a curtain that could be pulled across for privacy. In old movies, that made for lots of wacky hi-jinks. Guy A goes down to the men’s room to brush his teeth, miscalculates where he is on way back and climbs into bed with a strange woman just as her husband shows up etc.
This pic shows a Pullman Porter making up the beds on the left; the sections on the right are still in daytime mode.
In my opinion, the two characters have about zero chance of making it three days, with the making up, security, and taking down of open sections, with the girl turning into a bird periodically (perhaps uncontrollably?) especially if the ‘alchemist’ gets to the porters with his story about an escaped pet bird on the car somewhere, and a reward for its capture (a quick grab through the curtains at almost any time!) and subsequent caging.
I am wondering if going back to his original premise, either riding or ‘stowing away on’ a private or business car, might not be more appropriate, or advance the plot better.When a Pullman car was converted to a private business car in Chicago, would it ride west to its ‘new home’ with no more than a riding maintainer?
I have long understood that the beds in a private room are properly called “berths.” All of the berths in the compartments in the heavyweight cars
The most common heavyweight Pullman in the 1920s was the 12 section 1 drawing room car (12-1). Some of the higher-end trains were equipped with a few 10 section, 2 compartment, 1 Drawing room cars (10-2-1 in Pullman-speak). All room Pullmans, or even Pullmans with more than the three private rooms in a 10-2-1 were just about unheard of even on the plushest trains in the 1920s. 12-1 cars outnumbered 10-2-1 cars by about a ten to one margin.
All of the private rooms were on one side of the car. By preference they were usually set up so the rooms were on the right in the direction of travel on railroads with double track sections, but they could run either way.
If I recall, on the 20th Century, the private rooms were on the left, westbound, and on the right, eastbound, to optimize occupants’ views of the Hudson. I think this was true both before and after 1938’s intorduction of lightweight equipment.
After a little more research, I believe that it may have possible for the two to have traveled in a double bedroom from Seattle to Chicago, as Pullman was rebuilding cars to include double bedrooms about 1933. I do not have a Guide for 1934, but the November, 1937 issue that I have shows that the GN, NP, and Milwaukee all had at least one car with double bedrooms on their Seattle-Chiago trains. As I noted in an earlier post each of these bedrooms (five double bedrooms and eight sections in each car) had a seat, that was transverse to the side of the car, which became the lower berth and the upper berth was above it. There was also a washbasin and a toilet in each room.
Each train also had a car with ten sections, two compartments, and a drawing room.
That would be correct, if Hungerford and “Flight of the Century” are accurate on the subject. Not sure if consists on other Great Steel Fleet trains were turned for the ‘view’.
Wonder how many trains got wyed in Chicago-- and where. Why don’t we see pics of that?
Well, let’s see… AT&SF looped at 22nd and Archer, CB&Q,PRR, Alton south approach Union Station, CMStP&P Pacific Jct (Tower A5), NYC 39th St CR&I wye (also used by CRI&P And NKP). All roads serving Dearborn at 49th St. B&OCT (PM, CGW, Soo) at 14th and Ogden, IC (Big Four, MC) looped at 27th St. C&NW had a couple of wyes, with Western Avenue used as long as trains needed to be turned.
I would venture most all trains that originated and terminated in Chicago got turned, however, they got turned by Yard Crews in the process of dissembling the inbound train and assembling the outbound train. In some cases the Yard Crew would move the inbound train to the Coach Yard and the Outbound train to the station. In other cases the Inbound Road Crew would move the train to the Coach Yard and the Outbound Crew would move the train from the Coach Yard to the station and at the scheduled departure time take the train toward destination.
I suspect we don’t see many pictures of these operations because most photogs of the time dismissed ‘yard moves’ as beneath their ‘artistic integrety’ and never took pictures of these moves.
Re “berths” I mixed up terms, sorry. Berths are indeed beds; a typical “section” had two berths, upper and lower. Most travellers paying for a berth would have been in an open section.
For example, according to my old Walthers “Passenger Car Plans” book, the heavyweight GN Empire Builder would typically have as it’s full sleeping cars a 16-section “tourist” sleeper, a 14-section sleeper, a “12-and-1” (12 open sections, one drawing room), and an 8-1-2 (8 sections, 1 drawing room, 2 compartments) sleeper. So for these four you’d have 50 open sections, each with two berths, so 100 total; then two drawing rooms and two compartments. (I believe the Solarium Observation car would add several compartments and or drawing rooms.)
The Summer 2017 Mainstreeter (Northern Pacific Hist. Soc. magazine) has an article by Mike Martin called “MacFarlane’s Gamble”, referring to the risk NP took by spending a lot of money to upgrade the post-war North Coast Limited to a streamliner. A couple of interesting points:
“(T)he Great Northern and the Milwaukee Road competed with the Northern Pacific for the Chicago - Twin Cities - Seattle passenger market.” “Because rates were tightly regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission, all fares were about equal…and by gentleman’s agreement, all three competitors operated on an admittedly slow 45-hour schedule between St.Paul and Seattle.”
“All three railroads had a flagship train plus a secondary mail train over their respective transcontinental routes.” “All three operated their trains with generally heavyweight equipment and steam power.”
He notes that after WW2, GN and the Milwaukee upgraded to a 39-1/2 hour schedule, that required the NP to decide if it wanted to upgrade and compete or not.
Found this cutaway of a 1920 Pullman car - note towards the middle the open sections on the far side are made up for sleepin
In the 1950s GN got down to… 42 hours? Chicago-Seattle. Don’t think MILW ever matched that-- in 1952 NP reduced to 46-47 hours.