The Book of the Fair, Hubert H. Bancroft, 1893
Adjoining the section occupied by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad is the main exhibit of the Pullman Palace Car company, in which the most attractive features are two complete exhibition trains, a limited and a day train. Both are of finished workmanship, representing in its highest form of development a purely American invention, one opening a new field of progress in which no tentative efforts had been made in other lands. And yet it may be said that, like other valuable inventions, this was almost the result of an accident. Some thirty-five years ago, while travelling by night from Buffalo to Westfield, George M. Pullman lay awake, bethinking him how to convert the rude sleeping car then in use, into a comfortable dormitory on wheels. The idea grew upon him, and in due time he rented a workshop at Chicago, hired skilled mechanics, and applied himself in earnest to the task. The result was the car Pioneer, the first one built, and costing $18,000, or more than four times as much as the best before constructed. Though at first encountering strong opposition, it gradually revolutionized existing theories of construction, for nowhere else could be found such a combination of strength and beauty, with minute elaboration of devices for ease and comfort. From this small beginning was developed the Pullman enterprise, with property valued in 1893 at $60,000,000, and with more than 2,500 sleeping, parlor, and dining cars, carrying 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 passengers a year over the 125,000 miles of railroad under contract with the company.
1864 Pioneer
In all the Transportation department there is no more handsome exhibit than the Pullman Columbian exhibition trains almost in the centre of the annex. At the head of the limited train is one of the most powerful of compound engines, named Columbus, from the Baldwin Locomotive works at Philadelphia. First is the baggage and smoking car Marchena, with bath-room, barber’s shop, writing-desk, and library. Next is the dining-car La Rabida, finished in the finest of vermilion wood imported from Central America, with windows of stained glass in delicate hues, seats elaborately carved, and kitchen which is a model of cleanliness and condensation of space. There are the sleeping car America and the compartment sleeping car Ferdinand, both marvels of comfort and decorative skill, the latter finished in Pompeiian red, and satin wood, artistically carved and polished to a mirror-like brightness, each of its compartments a miniature boudoir, and with separate design and color scheme, as in ivory and gold, in olive green, in blue and satin wood, all with upholstery of silk brocade. The last is an observation car, named Isabella, a portion of which is furnished as a drawing-room, with large railed platform at its end. In this train it would almost seem that the perfection of comfort and convenience had been attained, many skillful devices, though small in themselves, contributing to the general effect. All the compartments are provided with toilet appliances, and with water, hot, cold, and iced. The electric lights are shaded with silken fringe; the entrance ways paved with mosaic, and vases placed on stands remain undisturbed by the motion of the train; so smoothly run these palace cars, the very embodiment of the luxury of modern travel.
In the second train is a mail car of novel pattern, its walls finished with white enamel, with mail boxes of cherry, and all the appliances of railroad postal service. Next is the passenger coach 1893, with the softest of high-backed cushioned seats, the parlor car Maria, with its sumptuous appointments completing the railroad exhibit. All the cars are equipped with the Pullman vestibule, forming a solid yet sinuous train, under a single roof, and allowing the traveller to pass in comfort as in his own home, from sitting to dining or sleeping room. Here for the first time is shown the application of the vestibule system to the entire width of the cars, by extending the sides and enclosing the ends, with an original and ingenious arrangement of entrance doors, and with trap doors above the steps, whereby is avoided the exposure to wind and weather on ordinary cars with open platforms and projecting hoods. A still more important advantage is that it affords practical immunity from danger to passengers even in case of violent collision.
In the Pullman group is also a set of standard six-wheel trucks, with street cars of various patterns, one of them an electric car with upper deck, such as are now in use at Washington. In the centre of the main building, fronting on the longitudinal nave, is a model of the workshops, stores, and dwellings of the town of Pullman, with its 12,000 inhabitants, more than half of whom are operatives actually employed at the works. Of these, further mention is made under the heading of World’s Fair Miscellany.
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