Pullman Conductors

[daveklepper]

The Silver Comet often had more than one sleeper, and thus a Pullman conductor was assigned.   You rode at a time  of reduced travel.   Probablly in the winter and nnot near or on a holiday.   For many years a Portsmouth - Atlanta or Portsmouth - Birmingham sleeper was handled ina addition to those from Washiington and New York, which meant that three sleepers were the usual.   (1954-1957).

[nyc#25]

  When only one car was operated, the porter became a "porter in charge" and could pick up

the Pullman space ticket.  When two or more cars were operated a Pullman Conductor was

assigned.  

[Deggesty]

I do not know the full history of having a Porter in Charge, but I had the impression that if there were only one car there would be no conductor, but the porter would be in charge of all the paperwork as well as taking care of the needs of his passengers; veteran porters would be used.

In 1969, I rode the New York-Winston-Salem car to Winston-Salem, and there was a Pullman conductor on board; I did not notice that he got off at Winston-Salem. In 1970, I rode the Asheville-Washington car from Winston-Salem, and the same conductor boarded there because the Winston-Salem-New York car was added--and he remembered me.

I have ridden other lines which were the only Pullman on the train, and there was no conductor. But, in November of 1968, when my mother and I rode from Washington to Birmingham on the Silver Comet, I do not recall more than one sleeper on the train--and the Pullman conductor and RF&P conductor came into our bedroom at the same time to take our transportation tickets and our space ticket ("Here are my transportation and our space, and my mother has her transportation"--which was a pass).

Anyone who read the memoirs of William Moedinger may recall that one of his assignments was changed because two sleepers were added to the single Denver-Kansas City sleeper on a SFe train, and a conductor was needed (and it was a rough assignment for a conductor on his first solo trip out of Philadelphia because of several extraordinary happenings; he survived).

[rcdrye]

At one time just about any train that carried Pullmans would have had a Pullman Conductor.  As far as I know the Pullman company began allowing some trains to be handled without a Conductor only after the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters won the right to organize.  I'm sure the process was accelerated during the depression, and after WWII even trains with several Pullmans might not have a Conductor.  Even during the Conductor era porters assigned to setout cars often lifted the Pullman coupon to deliver to the Pullman Conductor on the through train.

[KCSfan]

Back in the Pullman days I rode several trains that had only one sleeper in their consist. As best I can recall these trains did not carry a Pullman conductor and the coupon for my sleeping car space was collected by the porter. Does anyone know if there was some minimum number of sleepers that had to be on a given train before the Pullman company assigned a conductor to that train?

Mark