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
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 10:59:35 EST
Subject: [CBQ] Re: [PCL] Re: Posts on CZ, DZ and Q car assignments
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