What color did the curtains or window blinds of heavyweight cars (coaches, diners, sleepers, lounges & observations) in the 20s have?
I know that streamliner cars mostly had white window blinds, and rarely used curtains. But what about heavyweight cars before the streamliner era started? I also don´t know if they had curtains or blinds or both! Would be interesting for me to know, as I plan to install either curtains or blinds (depending on what is correct) into a 20s heavyweight passenger train, and I would like to know what the prefered standard color for these things was.
Going by personal recollections of several heavyweight Pullman cars I've been in, there were roll-up shades as the primary "window treatment". There was nearly always a silver-gray, rubberized surface on the side facing the glass, to help reflect sunlight and heat, and inside the car I recall several textured patterns in various shades of maroon or light brown. Some coaches I recall had a moss-green or olive color to the shades.
These were operated by pinching two brass tabs in the center of the shade which would release tension on the grippers at each side of the shade.
Around 1938 or so a more intricate system made by Adlake used integral wires to keep the shade held in place and you could raise or lower the shade by simply pushing up or down anywhere on the cross bar.
The Venetian blinds were only used in the "public spaces" of the train. Lounge cars, sometimes diners (but not always) occasionally parlor cars and some of the windows in observation cars. I've seen them in white (ivory), silver and wood grain.
Curtains were often, but not always, a decorative feature that were fixed to the pillars between the windows but on some of the very early cars they were functional. Curtains were brought back in vogue for the Metroliners and later the Amfleet cars where they were fixed in an upper and lower track and could be slid open or closed.
Aisles did not have blinds or shades but nearly always had brass or nickel plated grab rails across them horizontally.
In 1925, the Pullman Company operated nearly 9,800 cars. That's a lot of window shades so there's a chance that there was some variation among them.
A good reference for Pullman research is a book titled The Cars Of Pullman by Joe Welch, Bill Howes and Kevin Holland. I see copies of this book at Amazon (used) or ebay for less than $20. A great source of information.
Regards, Ed
Thanks for the info. It´s not the first heavyweight train where I install blinds or -better said- shades. So now I´m happy that I did it right because I mostly installed white ones, which will resemble that silver-gray color you described. Yes, I know that the public spaces used venetian blinds. I have brass venetian blinds installed into the public spaces of my 1951 Super Chief and 1950 Sunset Limited and it looks really good. But did the dining rooms of diners and lounge areas of observations use venetian blinds already in the 20s?
De LuxeBut did the dining rooms of diners and lounge areas of observations use venetian blinds already in the 20s?
In my experience, blinds were only used in the so called "betterment" cars—the late 1930s and post-War rebuilt heavyweights that had wider, sealed windows and air conditioning installed and any of the lightweights thereafter. B&O and PRR had many examples of these rebuilt heavyweights. Especially diners, since new ones were so expensive to buy. Western roads had them too, but I'm not as familiar with the rosters of those roads.
The three photos are from the Erie Railroad and show examples of the same:
Three photos: Erie Railroad, Midland Building, Cleveland 15, Ohio. Collection, gmpullman.
I paged through a few dozen photos of heavyweight observation and solarium cars and—with few exceptions, they all had roll-up blinds similar to what you see in the middle photo dining car.
Keep in mind that each railroad chose the interior decor of their own passenger cars. Different railroads would make different choices re blinds vs. shades, colors of each etc. Pullman cars (cars owned and operated by Pullman) might be more uniform, but often Pullman cars were assigned long term to particular railroads or even trains, and so might have interiors that matched that railroad's other car interiors.
Good to hear that blinds/shades were already used in the classic heavyweight era. Saves me a lots of work because curtains take way more time to produce.
Yes, I also paint the interiors. When I have informations or color pictures of the prototype, I try to paint like that. When I don´t, I use colors that were most common for interiors back in those days.
Some interesting info with pic's and links to Rail specific info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_car
Take Care!
Frank