Pullman sleepers

[Murphy Siding]

     I know, this is a really bad example, but.....We watched Cat Belloue, a late 60's western last night.  In it, the passenger cars on a train set in the 1880's was changed into sleeping cars, with upper and lower berths, complete with heavy green curtains.  In the heat of conflict, a bad guy, who was hiding in a lower berth, opened the window that was set at about 12" off the floor and jumped out.

     I realize, that the window was where it was, simply so the bad guy could jump out.  But it got me thinking.  Having never ridden a passenger train, when a car is made up into pullman sleepers, with upper and lower berths, where does the window hit?  Could you lay in the upper berth and look out the window?  Or open it, and jump out if you wished?

     I should note, that the  train was made up of a 4-4-0 steamer, 2 passenger cars, and a caboose!  It also had janey couplers, and a nifty big ol' lever, that the bad guy could use to gently brake the train, after having gingerly uncoupled it from the locomotive, which puffed on into the distance.

    

[daveklepper]

Until the early lightweight era, the 1930's, Pullman sleepers did not have windows for the upper berths.  The window was at the usual location, in line with coach windows, but generally without an upper sash that some coach designs had.  (Older wood coaches particularly, often with a Gothic arch.)   They were operable.  In the daytime, the sections were two seats facing each other, and usually one could ask the porter to place a folding light wood table between the two seats, with one leg next to the aisle and the other end plugged into wall sockets.   The upper berth was very cramped, and a tall person could not even sit up straight.  A married couple would be allowed to share a lower berth, which meant that sometimes there were three people in one section, and during the day there would be two people in the forward facing seat, which was wide enough, and one facing the rear.  One could pay extra and buy the whole section while using a single first-class ticket.   Standard procedure for getting dressed and undressed after the lower berth was made up was to stand next to the bed, pushing the green privacy curtain out to aisle and doing ones clothes change as quickly as possible to avoid blocking the aisle for fatter people to pass by.   (I recall one night riding overnight on a Seabord or ACL (via Auburndale) train between Jacksonville and Miami, age 27-28, when the conductor decided to be playful and pinched my derrier through the curtain.)   When using an upper berth (after my early childhood, when I was small enough to fit comfortably in the upper berth while parents or camp counselor used the lower) I would either sleep in my clothes or have good looking pajamas with me and change in the men's room.   I recall reading that the Wagner car company, a competitor to Pullman used by New York Central, later bought by Pullman, did have sleepers with upper berth windows, but I am not certain.   Also sleepers on the Interstate-Indiana Railroad interurban between Louisville and Indianapolis had upper berth windows.  I also think I remember that the experimental Pullman alumminum sleeper of the 1930's had upper berth windows.  The postwar lightweight sleepers that had sections in addition to roomettes and bedrooms did not have upper-berth windows. 

The first Pullman sleeper, the Pioneer, was built for Chicago - St. Louis service soon after the Civil War/War-between-the-States, so in terms of time, the movie was correct.   But Janey couplers came later, since link-and-pin was still generally used in the 1880's.   Link-and-pin continued to be used on the Manhattan elevated to about 1953, on wood gate cars and those rebuilt with doors and multiple unit door control, but not on the composites or "Q"-cars, which used the Westinghouse "subway" couplers.

[artpeterson]

Hi - Dave's correct that the Interstate Public Service (later, IR) section cars (built by AC&F in the mid-20s) had windows for the upper berths.  IT's wood sleepers of 1911-1913 (multiple orders of cars a few at a time) were the first to have upper berth windows and they made quite a deal out of this in their advertising of that era.  Oregon Electric copied the IT design (including having Barney & Smith build their two cars) but did not include upper berth windows.  The IPS and OE cars ended up on the PGE.  IT's cars went into work service after their sleeping car service ended in mid-1940.  Art 

[daveklepper]

More info on that Jacksonville - Miami trip.   Took place just after the FEC strike which meant the ACL passenger service was rerouted from the FEC to its own line through Orlando to Auburndale and then trackage rights of the SAL to the Miami SAL Station.    I may be in error in saying I was in a section lower berth.  Standard roomettes also forced one to stand between the bed and the curtain, projecting into the aisle, with the door open, when lowering the bed or if changing clothes after the bed was lowered.   The sleeper came through from NYC or possibly DC, the porter had arranged the room or section for night and gone to bed, and only the conductor boarded me.   MY ticket had the space number.   I think this was 1959.   If checks on consists in timetables indicate a lower berth, section sleeping accomodations, were available, then that is what I used.  (When and where slumbercoaches were available, I usually used them.)   Otherwise it was a roomette.

My main concern was getting a good night's sleep to meet a wealthy architect client the next morning, Tom Madden, I think was his name.  He had a brand new gullwing Merecedes 300SP.  After we finished a design collaboration and meeting, he suggested I ride with him back to Jacksonville in that fantasy car and take the train north from there, since he had planned on driving to Jacksonville.  I did not pass up the chance to ride in a real Mercedes gullwing, and did get to drive the car for a spell.   So I didn't make any issue about the incident.