Personnel on a train in the early 40's

[andreasgarrett]

 

Hey Y'all,

I'm writing a story, which I'm generally too embarrassed to tell anyone, about a girl who is at this point in the narrative traveling by train from Warm Springs, GA to Washington, D.C. with a black housekeeper as a chaperone. I’ve looked about and can’t really find what personnel would be on a train at this period? I know of course an engineer and a conductor but how many conductors? And any other figures of authority? Someone like a hotel detective except they’re on the train? I’ve written a murder on the train. The black lady who is the housekeeper kills someone defending her charge, this girl who’s around 15 and white. I wrote that it was an issue that the black lady travel with this girl but the girl’s father who is a Senator arranged it.

So what persons of authority would be running up to take charge if there were a murder on the train? How would you arrange the sleeping of a black person who is in charge of a white young person? I presume that Nanny’s and such rode with their charges? I guess I could get around the sleeping arrangements with everyone having to sit up in a car because of the murder.

What do y’all think? What “train authorities” would be on the train.

Any help appreciated.

Regards,

Andrea

[Deggesty]

The authority on board is the conductor, who is in charge of the train, and he would have the responsibility of calling local police in.  Failing the conductor's being able to act, the senior brakeman (there were two brakemen) would be the one.

Looking at the schedules of trains in the early forties, the two would have had to leave Warm Springs in the morning, traveling coach--which would have meant that the housekeeper was not allowed to ride in the same car with the girl. And they would not have been allowed to sit in the same waiting room in Atlanta. From Atlanta to Washington, they may have been allowed to travel in the same drawing room, and their meals would have been brought to them.

[daveklepper]

If the Senator arranged it and had pull, on the local from Warm Springs to Atlanta, the two, both the girl and the housekeeper, would have ridden in the combine, the baggage and coach combination car, with the crew and no other passengers.   There would have been several coaches on the train, wartime conditions and trains were well used, and there would have been segregation for the other passsengers, but the crew and the housekeeper and girl would have been the only riders in the combine.

There might have been a special VIP room at the Atlanta Station, or they would have accommodated in the Station Master's office.   Often in WWII youngsters traveling alone connecting between trains were so accomodated, with the conductor or trainman taking them there and another takiing them to the connecting train.

From Atlanta they would have been in the drawing room in a regular 12 section - 1 drawing room car, and meals would have been brought to them.   From Warm Springs to Atlanta, there would have been a conductor and one or two brakemen or assistant conductors, really, plus a baggeman, who would have ridden in the combine when not actually loading or unloading baggage and express, and there may have been a railway postoffice car with mail clerk pretty well confined to his car.  Plus the engineeer and fireman on the locomotive.   Out of Atlanta, each Pullman car would have had its own black porter, and there would have been both a train conductor, two brakemen, and a Pullman conductor.   Ticket stubs may have been collected at at the gate in the concourse before train boarding, but it collected on that train, both conductors would have appeared together.  In the dining car, there would have been two chefs, a matre-de or steward, and probably three waiters.  Since the Senator made the arrangements, it is highly likely that the Steward came to the drawing room with a menue to take orders, but one of the waiters probably brought the food with hot food covered under silver covers.  The porter of the car would make up the beds, with the girl asked to go and wait in the lounge car, and the housekeeper staying with the porter during the makeup period, ditto in the morning if conversion to couch and chairs was desireable.   The lounge car was open only to Pullman passengers and had its own black attendant.  Th waiters were black, the steward and conductor and brakemen and engineer white, and the fireman and chefs either, wiith blacks just entering those lines of railroad work during WWII.

[andreasgarrett]

Daveklepper and Deggesty thank you both so much! That is wonderful information, very helpful. I appreciate it! When the narrative reaches the point that the heroine has to travel in Europe I will probably need your expertise again.

Writing aside I only hope I live long enough for train travel to become the norm again. I love riding trains and would cheerfully spend twice as long getting to work if I could only get on a train to come rather than dodge traffic in my car. One of my fondest memories is taking my Grandmother to the train station to travel to New Orleans to visit with our family there. We'd have to be at our little station at night (I remember it as Midnight but that might be for the drama of the hour). The conductor would open the door of the car, Grandmama would get in, and off she'd go speeding away in the night on an adventure.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Andrea

[daveklepper]

for specific train names and times, consult "The Official Guid" of the period.   One of your libraries may have a copy.   The trains would probably have all been on The Southern Railroad.

[Deggesty]

I have copies of the Guide for January, 1941, July, 1943, and October, 1944. The date of the trip can make a difference as to what train was taken from Atlanta and Washington, (there was only one train from Columbus that passed through Warm Springs on the way to Atlanta, and its schedule was changed from time to time); not all trains from Atlanta were convenient for traveling in a drawing room between those two cities (in 1941, the Crescent did not have a drawing room from Atlanta to Washington, and detraining after arriving in Washington at about four in the morning would have been somewhat inconvenient, but the Seaboard's Robert E. Lee could have been ridden).

[wjstix]

It was common during segregation times for a white man to travel with a black valet. The valet was allowed to stay in his employer's room at a "whites only" hotel. I don't know if it was more a matter of custom than something specific in the law. I know some black jazz musicians used to book into "whites only" hotels by pretending to be the valet to one of their white bandmates. I assume the same would work for a white woman travelling with a black maid, or a white child travelling with a black governess.

I'd assume it would be the same on a segregated train too??  

 

[daveklepper]

Pullman did not need to practice segregation in private room cars.  Segregation would have been practiced in section sleepers.   If there was no drawing room on the Crescent, a compartment or double-bedroom would probablyi have been adequate.   But no reason not to use the Seabord with a more convenient Washignton arrival time.