Transcontinental through sleepers

[daveklepper]

1.   I know of no Boston - West Coast through sleepers in the 20th Century.   Were there any?   Strange, since the Boston Board of Trade chartered a through Pullman Palace Car train from Boston to SF as soon as a continious line of rail was in place.   As far as I know, Boston had no through cars via StL to Texas or Mexico.

2.  Has anyone contributing to this post actually ridden one of the through car services?  Or the NY - Mexico City sleeper?   What was it like to stay on the sleeper while transferred from one Chicago Station to another?

[FlyingCrow]

Dave..  No Boston to Texas / Mexico traffic.    Directly without getting out of your car.     You had to change trains in Albany - at least in the "streamline" era.    

I've ridden the passing cars via Chicago and St. Louis from New York.    Two different experiences.     Chicago was a nifty railfan trip around the yards between Union and Dearborn; St. Louis was a couple of switching moves.

More detail if you want it.

[RRCharlie]

Shortly after Amtrak began operation I made reservations on a Boston, New Orleans, Los Angeles through sleeper. The theory was wonderful, but the execution didn't quite come up to what was advertised. My sleeper was bad ordered on the Southern Crescent (not an Amtrak train at the time) in the middle of the Carolinas way after bed time and we were placed ina different car. When we got to New Orleans we were switched to a different car, again. I was able to see the town and come back to NOUPT late at night, go to sleep in my roomette and wake up the next day on the Sunset Limited headed for Los Angeles.

 

[Deggesty]

I had forgotten about the Boston-NOLA-LA car that was operated for a tiem, even though I saw it several times as the Southern Crescent was passing through Tuscaloosa.

As has been noted above, there never was any other Boston-West Coast through sleeper. It may well be that the Boston Brahmins had no urge to go further west than Chicago, New York, or Washington, though they did go down to the Florida resorts. No prospective traffic? Why run a car.

In 1980, I rode a Southern sleeper from New Orleans to Los Angeles; it was the NY to LA car (in 1971, I rode an SP sleeper Houston to Tuscaloosa).

[wjstix]

I'd be hesitant to say there never was direct Pullman service from Boston to the west coast. It wouldn't have been that hard to do, Boston & Albany from Mass. to Albany NY, parent New York Central to Chicago, then one of several railroads to the west coast. Pullman cars often travelled over several different railroads - 100 years ago you could go from here (Minneapolis-St.Paul) to Los Angeles on a Pullman sleeper without changing cars for example, even though you went on several different railroads.

[daveklepper]

Yes, Flying Crow, I would like the details.