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[CBQ] Re: [PCL] Re: Posts on CZ, DZ and Q car assignments

To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CBQ] Re: [PCL] Re: Posts on CZ, DZ and Q car assignments
From: rgortowski@aol.com
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 10:59:35 EST
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Let's try this again.  I forgot you cannot forward, so I cut and  pasted it...
 
List,

Dave Staplin from the Passenger Car List posted this  explanation on how the  
Q kept track of and assigned reserved  seats/rooms in their passenger  
trains.  
I found it very  interesting.

Rich

<<From Dave Staplin - Passenger Car List>>
 
The cars on the major trains like the CZ and DZ had one diagram for  
each car in the consist.  The diagrams were specific to the car  
types, so for example, the 16 section conversion coaches (Silver 
Pine),  the diagrams definitely had 48 seats as opposed to the DZ's 
flat-tops, which  I remember having 50 seats.  The pre-war cars 
differed, but the most  common arrangement was 52 seats.  Not only 
did the diagrams have to be  car specific, you had to be able to tell 
which seats were bulkhead seats and  which seats adjoined, because 
families did not want to be separated, if  possible.  The 46 seat 
dome coaches on the CZ and DZ had the seat  numbers assigned in 
identical fashion, but the seat numbering system on the  GN and NP 46 
seat domes (which the "Q" sontrolled reservations on for  westbound 
departures) were different.  Why was this important to  know?  People 
may remember that there were four seats that faced each  other at the 
foot of the dome stairs on those cars, which rendered some of  the 
leg-rests non-functional.  You didn't want to put people together  in 
those seats that did not know one another if possible.  Also, the  
seats backing up to the dome support bulkhead were rearward facing,  
which some patrons did not like.

The space control position (it  happened to be occupied by a young 
lady the summer I worked for the "Q") in  the Chicago reservation 
bureau stamped the diagrams as to which stations  controlled the 
space. On the DZ, after some local train was discontinued (a  train 
that I am not familiar with), the "Q" added an undreserved car,  DZ-
40, that handled really short locals (Princeton, Mendota, etc.) On  
the longer "shorts," Galesburg or Burlington, for example, those  
stations would be alloted a certain number of seats for their direct  
sale.  They would be informed of what seats those were and what car  
they were in.  On the DZ, it was likely to be in DZ-39.  On the  CZ, 
it was CZ-22, at least in the-off peak periods.  The agents at  those 
stations could then sell those seats without asking anybody FROM  
THEIR STATIONS ONLY.  The Chicago reservation bureau could and would  
sell them from Chicago to that station.  

An off mainline agent  at a place like Hannibal would not likely have 
been assigned seats.  He  would have called the nearest station that 
did hold space to get a  reservation. He probably had an unofficial  
copy of the diagrams so  that he knew who to call.  Some RRs put out 
a circular to off-line  agents, rather than copies of the diagrams.  
A wonderful example of  this can be seen for NYC on Terry Link's CASO 
website.  He has an image  of the entire NYC train inventory for some 
period of 1943.  It shows  every Pullman on the system, by train and 
a few of the reserved  coaches.  The only major train missing is the 
seat-by-seat detail for  the Empire State Express which evidently had 
its own circular.   

If a station ran out of alloted seats, they would call Chicago to  
see if the Res Bureau would release additional seats to them.  It  
would do no good to call a "downstream" station, because Chicago 
would  be trying to sell that station's seats short.  

People off line on  other RRs would call the "Q" Res Bureau for space 
if one of their customers  wanted to make a trip that invovled 
the "Q".  The "Q " kept additional  clerks in the Res Bureau until 
about nine o'clock PM in the summer to cover  west coast calls.  
After that, there was just a skeleton force on until  morning.

In the reservation bureau, if an off-line agent or an ordinary  
customer called for a reservation, the agent taking the call would, 
by  consultation, determine the train, originating travel date and 
boarding  point.  The diagrams were located in a large revolving 
circular pigeon  hole drum structure that was powered by the 
armstrong method.  The  reservation clerks sat aroung the drum with a 
small flat surface on which to  write.  About two or three months of 
consists were pigeon holed in the  drum.  For dates farther out, 
there was a stationary pigeon hole  structure near where the space 
control position worked.

The  reservation clerk would grab the appropriate diagrams as the 
drum revolved  by them and locate a seat appropriate for the 
customer.  If the  customer had not yet purchased an actual ticket, 
the clerk would put their  name and phone number in the space and a 
date by which the customer had to  buy the ticket.  If they failed to 
do so, and the train began to fill,  a reservation agent searching 
for a seat for another customer could find an  expired date and 
resell the seat.  Before the expiration date, the  original customer 
or a ticket agent working on their behalf would call when  the actual 
ticket sale took place and read the space assigned to hold the  
original reservation to a reservation clerk in Chicago.  That  
reservation clerk would locate the customer's space on the diagrams 
and  put the actual ticket number in the space, replacing the name 
and time limit  date.  Then the space was considered locked up.

On very busy days,  it was the passenger rep's job on the DZ to wire 
ahead any available seats  left leaving Chicago to downstream 
stations.  That would be either  space that was not sold or space 
that was left by no-shows.  Sadly, the  RRs never did learn the art 
of overbooking like the airlines did.  On  the DZ, a train that was 
theoretically booked full leaving Chicago typically  went out with 5% 
or more of the seats empty due to no-shows.  The  problem in Pullmans 
was not so great, because the no-show would forfeit the  space charge.

The "Q" reservation bureau also held all Pullman space on  "Q" 
Chicago originations, including the GN and NP trains.

This is  probably more than you wanted to know.

Dave  Staplin




--- In PassengerCarList@yahoogroups.com, "GLEN HAUG"  
<glenehaug@m...> wrote:
> 
> Dave Staplin:
>  
> Your posts have been extremely interesting.  In one post on 12/29,  
you made mention of diagrams for the reserved trains.  I have a  
question about these.
> 
> In the late 60's, I frequently bought  tickets at Hannibal for the 
CZ or DZ from Galesburg (or Burlington) to  Lincoln.  If I boarded in 
Burlington it was a combination bus/train  ticket from Hannibal to 
Burlington, #17 to Lincoln.  If Galesburg, it  was a non-reserved 
ticket as far as Galesburg on #6 from West Quincy  (previously KCZ 
#36), #1 to Lincoln.
> 
> Hannibal had a ticket  agent even after the Zephyr-Rocket was 
eliminated, and I seem to remember  that he had diagrams similar to 
what you might be talking about, but before  writing the ticket he 
always called someone else.  Would that have been  the reservation 
bureau in Chicago?  The diagrams he had were quite  elaborate, as I 
recall, similar to an HO scale plan view of the car, with  all of the 
seats shown by number.  This must have been a sophisticated  system, 
with accurate seat plans required for each different car, and  
particularly if off-line stations had copies.
> 
> Glen  Haug
> 



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