pullman

[Anonymous]

my dad told me that pullman maid rr cars but i thought they were a rr company
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[ndbprr]

Pullman was a visionary who created the town of Pullman on the SE side of Chicago in the late 1800's He invented the sleeping car and the Pullman company owned many types of cars over the years. They prided themselves on the condition of the casr and the cleanliness and service. The government decided to break up Pullman in the 1950's and forced them to either make or own the railroad cars. What is eft of the town of Pullman still exists and can be visited if in Chicago. They have an excellent visitor center that describes the history and has many railroad related items. They also sjow a video of the story and our Chicago chapter of the PRR histroical society uses their facility for our meetings. Tours of the housing and Hotel Florence can be arranged and they have a big weekend in October. A couple of related topics. The twon as built was the first area in Chicago to have sewer system and was extremely progressive. Pullman conductors were all black employees and were refered to universally as "George". Much has been written about the racial issues for porters and a union uprising in Pullman that resuoted in many deaths when the militray was called in to stop it. Pullman was not a philanthropist. he built the community as a money making venture for his investors and when busines entered a recession he cut back the hours and wages of the employees but held the rents where they were. The workers the struck.

[Anonymous]

You're both right. Pullman used to own and operate sleeping cars on RRs, but they were effectively pushed out of this for reasons I'm not too sure about - something to do with them having too much of a monopoly? They have built cars for other owners ever since - look for the builder name "Pullman Standard" or "PS". Hope this helps!

[Jetrock]

George Pullman didn't invent the sleeping car, any more than Ray Kroc of McDonald's invented the hamburger--he just made it into a standardized commodity.

The Pullman company made railroad cars--originally, only passenger cars with sleeping compartments. They did not own any track or any locomotives. Instead, they leased their passenger cars to railroad companies all over the United States. They ran on many railroads, but the cars were all Pullman, built to the same standard, with the same fixtures, from the same plans.

It's kind of like McDonald's or other fast-food chain--no matter where you go, you'll find the same restaurant, with the same menu, selling the same food the same way. The Pullman name was everywhere in a Pullman car--on the bedsheets and pillows, on the soap and washcloths in the bathroom, everywhere!

African-Americans were most commonly hired as porters--the work was hard and the pay unspectacular, but it was reliable work. People got into the habit of calling Pullman porters "George", after the name of the founder of the company, as yet another sort of standardization.

In the 1930s, typically 100,000 people per night slept in Pullman cars traveling around the country.

In the 1940s, Pullman had to diversify, and started building freight cars as well as passenger cars. Antitrust laws changed their business practices and they started producing cars for sale, rather than leasing their cars as before.

So, no, there wasn't a Pullman Railroad. But you saw plenty of cars with "Pullman" on the side, being carried by trains with all sorts of names.