All Pullman Service..Overnight Sleepers as opposed to flying..Drop Pullman at spur. wake up at 800am

[Anonymous]

Before the Airplane...many railroads ran all Pullman service where cars that came in at odd hours of the night where switched off and put on a siding..The cars would be heated by a small power plant that would privide steam to the cars...So as a alternitive to flying who here would like to get on a train at 800 pm after having supper at home with his family.. Then check in with the railroad and get dropped off in lets say Erie Pa at 200am(you would be fast asleep) and wake up at 800am have breakfast and go have that buisness meeting...Then either fly home or do the same trip in reverse...As opposed to the red eye flight at 700am and have to contend with airport parking and security checkpoints
....Binghamton NY still has the Sleeper tracks next to the Laccawanna train station.

[AlcoRS11Nut]

id like that

[Modelcar]

....That was an interesting concept...and it must have been done many places around the country. I have read of it being done here in our moderate size city some years ago...A sleeper was dropped off and picked up by another train and continued on to Chicago....Really don't know all the details but it transpired something like that.
In the world we live in now I wonder about the safety of such moves....{while the car is on the sleeper track....the threat of vandals, etc...}.

[traintownofcowee]

I have a original Pullman step stool. It even has P. U. L. L. M. A. N. engraved in it.
It's one of the originals!
I have lots of railroad memorabilia.
Do any of U?
[:)][8D][:D][^][8)][:P][;)][alien][X-)][%-)][(-D][swg][{(-_-)}]
Well...

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

....That was an interesting concept...and it must have been done many places around the country. I have read of it being done here in our moderate size city some years ago...A sleeper was dropped off and picked up by another train and continued on to Chicago....Really don't know all the details but it transpired something like that.
In the world we live in now I wonder about the safety of such moves....{while the car is on the sleeper track....the threat of vandals, etc...}.

ATK 21&22 do it three times a week in San Antonio in conjunction with 1&2.

[Modelcar]

....Wow.....Didn't there was such an operation still being done....Surprise.

[kenneo]

There are several. The "Empire Builder" does it also at Spokane where the Seattle and Portland sections are separated (west) or joined (east).

The UP was an expert at such moves. With only 4 trains, this manuver permitted through service between Kansas City and Spokane with the cars set off by the "Portland Rose" at Hinkle and the "O-Dub Flyer" (Portland-Spokane) taking the cars from Hinkle to Spokane. The "Idaho Mail" (aka "Idahoan") and "City of Portland" also did this for certain traffic, always Boise and west.

When the Spokane train was taken off, the "Rose" and the "Mail" also were abolished and a 3 AM connection to change to a bus at Pendleton just didn't cut it.

[tpatrick]

An interesting idea at first glance, but not really practical in most cases. Erie is a good example of a typical medium sized city midway on a major route. Trains stop there only in the wee hours of the morning, so such a service would seem made to order. The problem is that you need more than a few Erie bound passengers to make it worthwhile to set out a car. You need a full load. Also you need a second car for departing passengers who boarded earlier in the evening. Again a full load is needed. So now the service requires not one, but two switching moves. That takes money for the switch crews and engine. You need a full time attendant in each laid over car. You need electric service and security , too. It also takes time, which means delay for the train. Multiply this by stops in Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland and Toledo and you have major expense and delay all along the route and probably little extra ridership to pay for it. I doubt that even a full load in every car every day would justify the expense and delays.

[passengerfan]

When the Great Northern inaugurated the Western Star they operated two sleeping cars in each consist that were picked up and dropped enroute. First their was a St. Paul - Great Falls Glacier series 16-Duplex Roomette 4-Double Bedroom Sleeping car and also an overnight Seattle-Spokane Glacier series sleeping car in each direction. Passengers could board the Spokane to Seattle sleeper at 9:00 PM and retire for the night, around midnight the westbound Western Star picked up the sleeper and delivered it to Seattle in the AM. The Western Star also carried summer sleepers from other railroads between Chicago and Glacier National Park. They also carried sleepers from Seattle and Spokane to Glacier Nationbal Park. These cars were from the Pullman pool and were used as sleeping accommodation in some cases while at Glacier and were often moved between different Glacier Park stations during their stay. The GN Empire Builder eventually operated the overnight sleeping cars between Seattle and Spokane.

At one time the NP North Coast Limited operated overnight sleeping cars between Seattle and Pasco that originated or terminated in Walla Walla. Later these sleeping cars operated in the Mainstreeter between Seattle and Pasco. Their was also a Portland sleeping car that originated on the UP Spokane-Portland overnight train that was dropped in Lewiston by a spur operation of the UP from Wallula on the Columbia River.

Each of the railroads (UP-GN-NP) that operated a Seattle-Portland train also operated an overnight train for three month periods that operated a Sleeper between Tacoma and Portland in each direction. At one time this was one of the shortest sleeping car routes in the United States. Through sleeping cars were carried between Seattle and Portland the actual terminal cities of Seattle-Portland pool trains.

The SP&S operated a sleeper lounge car between Portland and Spokane that operated as a parlor car in one direction and as a sleeping car in the other.

The UP daytime pool train between Portland and Seattle northbound carried a through sleeping car from the City of Portland that originated in Seattle and four SP sleeping cars that originated in Oakland and traveled to Portland in the Cascade. The four SP pool cars returned to Portland the next day in the NP pool train for transfer to the Cascade for the return to Oakland. The NP owned two 10-6 sleeping cars that operated in the Cascade as part of the through Seattle - Oakland service. The UP sleeping car returned in the UP train and became a through Portland Rose sleeper to Denver. This is just one region of the United States that provided some odd sleeping car services. This is from memory so information is from what I remember.

[Anonymous]

I think the B&O was very expert at stopping pullman trains to change them by flashlight without waking the sleeping passengers in the dead of night. (I forget where)

The 8 am wake up call in today's economy would mean that you are at least an hour late for meetings etc.

I have been building an all Pullman train and reading some books specifically about this type of service for a time now.

I was told the other day that Boeing and perhaps Airbus might be designing really large aircraft that featured sleepers for the extremly long 12 hour plus flights overseas. Maybe a bit of google time will help me clarify this tidbit.

What about Europe? Was there a Pullman Service as we know it over there?

[Anonymous]

I think that in this case the railroad it self might be its own biggest custumer.
I have heard of railroad jitneys moving crews from Cleveland to Pittsburg to Toledo,,,,
The railroad instaed of using hotels copuld use sleeper cars. This would take case of Lodging AND transportation

[mersenne6]

It was also done overseas. Back in 1973 I had the good fortune to discover this feature on British Rail. I boarded the car at Exeter-St. David down in Cornwall around 7 in the evening - went to sleep in the compartment and the next thing I knew there was a knock on my door. When I opened it the attendant handed me a pot of hot tea and some biscuits and said, "Good morning sir. London in 25 minutes!". I had the tea, and had myself ready to go the second the train pulled into the station.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Setout sleeping cars used to be a point of pride for smaller midroute cities. There was an article in TRAINS in the late 1960's that showed how widespread the practice was. It included a schematic for the year 1929 that showed numerous sleeping car routes (many of them being setouts) out of GCT and Penn Station in New York.

[BaltACD]

Set out cars, be they sleepers or coaches were a very high cost, labor intensive proposition as they normally required the assistance of a yard engine and crew as well s as car department personnel to make the move.

[Anonymous]

It could be done now...
outside of Amtrak....
Sleeping cars could go from Intermodal terminal to Intermodal Terminal and be handeled on the back of Scheduled Stack Trains...Parking would be at the terminals and the cars would be set out at the terminals...Oh yeah I have heard all the BS about Slack Action but the truth after ridded many of a stack train is that there is very little slack action on stacks....For Stack Schedules check skedz.com

[mloik]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TerminalTower

It could be done now...
outside of Amtrak....
Sleeping cars could go from Intermodal terminal to Intermodal Terminal and be handeled on the back of Scheduled Stack Trains...Parking would be at the terminals and the cars would be set out at the terminals...Oh yeah I have heard all the BS about Slack Action but the truth after ridded many of a stack train is that there is very little slack action on stacks....For Stack Schedules check skedz.com

Yes, and perhaps they could install brand-new shackles, too...

[martin.knoepfel]

You don't need a switch crew and engine to set out a sleeper. The sleeper is the last car in train. The train enters a parallel track - can be short -, stops and drops the sleeper, for example at Erie. While the coupler and the air-hoses are disconnected, new passengers, for let's say Chicago can board any of the other passengers cars. The train continues. In the morning, a part-time Amtrak employee shows up and to attend the passengers. The sleeper could be brought to another, bigger station on the rear-end of a freight train. This needs more sleepers, but most probably costs less than the manuver with two cars. Alternative: the sleeper is a Budd-RDC-like diesel motor car. In the morning, after the night passengers left and the car is cleaned, the beds will be transformed to seats and the car makes a morning connection to a bigger city.

[Anonymous]

Southern offered that service on the Northbound Cresent at Union Station, Washington D.C. back on the Spring 1964 schedule.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TerminalTower

It could be done now...
outside of Amtrak....
Sleeping cars could go from Intermodal terminal to Intermodal Terminal and be handeled on the back of Scheduled Stack Trains...Parking would be at the terminals and the cars would be set out at the terminals...Oh yeah I have heard all the BS about Slack Action but the truth after ridded many of a stack train is that there is very little slack action on stacks....For Stack Schedules check skedz.com

I don't foresee sleeping cars attached to the back of a stack train for several reasons. For openers, no freight hauler would be willing to tack passenger cars on the back of a scheduled freight when the freight train's schedule could be affected. The sleeping cars would have to be completely self-contained since there is no HEP source. Most intermodal terminals are a long way from where sleeping car passengers would want to go so you would still need to get the cars to the city center.

This is my 2000th post!

[oltmannd]

Last train I knew of to do this was Amtrak's Night Owl which would drop and pick a sleeper at NYP. Not sure if they still did this when the expanded to Newport News and renamed it the Federal or not.

[Anonymous]

Inthecase of EriePA, there were lots of other trains leaving at various times of day and night for all sorts of destinations.

It was common practice in the old days. Theswitch crew would already be available as they were doing other work in the area, head end cars, etc. Likewise carknockers. I rode several in my ridiing days. UP 104 (City of LA) setout car from SLC to Omaha for one. Anice system.