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Rupert,
I was reading a book on Pullman last night, and the thing the author was stressing is that Pullman created a paradigm shift when it came to the sleeper business. A few manufacturers were building primitive sleepers when he got into the business. His business model was different. He built the sleeper with his own money and made money by allowing the railroad to keep the day fare, while Pullman got to keep the extra fare for the sleeper. Lot's of details, but it was a pretty low risk venture for the railroads. Pullman felt that people were willing to pay more to make travel more pleasent (it was truly miserable for long distance trips.)
In a super condensed view, he also did this to parlor cars and, to some extent, diners. As Bob said, lots of complexity here but he was a real pioneer in the field. Makes for interesting reading.
Rich
-----Original Message-----
From: Rupert & Maureen <gamlenz@ihug.co.nz> To: CBQ List <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Mon, Feb 13, 2012 12:27 am Subject: Re: [CBQ] Pullman and sleeping cars
John, Bob and Rich
Thank you for your responses and information. It's more complicated that I anticipated so I'll come back with more queries later. In passing, I've just found an 1897 article about a train built for the Chicago - St Paul service (Burlington Limited) "Probably the finest train of cars in the world was recently completed at the Pullman Car Works for service on the CB&Q. The names of these cars were "St Paul" for the composite car, "Parthenon" for the straight sleeper, "Apollo" for the compartment car, "Alma" for the chair car and "Winona" for the day coach." (I note there is no mention of dining cars.)
The article, which includes a photo of the train and interior shots, extols the quality of equipment and their beauty. Would I be correct, then, that Parthenon and Apollo (together with Pantheon and Angelo) were owned by Pullman and the other cars were owned by the Burlington? Thanks again Rupert
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