Travel by Pullman

Pullman, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Although the company made all types of rail cars-including freight cars and trolleys-Pullman is best known for it's luxurious passenger cars. Inspired by an uncomfortable overnight trip in which he tried to sleep in his seat, founder George Pullman decided to come up with a better solution. The earliest Pullman sleeper cars featured double berths-the upper ones folded down from the walls of the car, and the seats folded to become the lowers. Curtains provided privacy for occupants, there were washrooms for both men and women at each end of the car. In addition, the company provided staffing for their cars, and Pullman porters became fixtures at train stations all across the country . Pullman also hired black men as porters, offering better pay and opportunity for travel than most jobs open to them at the time. At one point, Pullman was the largest employer of black men in the U.S.

This car is a later, lightweight stainless car, and was used on the Northern Pacific. It's currently a display at the Illinois Railway Museum.

Swift's Premium

Swift's Premium, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

We recently visited this vintage Swift & Co. refrigerated car, parked out the back of the Fox River Trolley Museum. I've seen a couple of these in other museums, and somewhere I found a photo of a Chicago & North Western freight train pulling a solid line of them out of the city. Not a surprise since Swift had a big facility in Chicago (big enough to warrant it's own stop on the CTA's Stockyards branch).

Swift

Swift, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A vintage refrigerated rail car, once owned by the Swift company.

North Western

North Western, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Bi-level gallery cars first started to appear in the 1950's on Chicago's commuter lines. A double decker design, they featured an open space between both sides of the upper level, allowing conductors to collect tickets from the lower level. It's a pretty efficient design, and one that is still in use on Metra today.

This is a former Chicago and North Western car, and was made by the St. Louis Car company in 1955.

Oscar Mayer

Oscar Mayer, originally uploaded by William 74.

While not the most common rail cars (especially now), box cars are probably the most versatile, with the ability to carry just about anything that can be loaded into it. Originally they were hand loaded, but of course forklifts and other devices have sped up the process. However, box cars are still a good deal slower to load and unload than other types of car, which helps to explain the decline in their use since World War II. They've been largely supplanted by intermodal containers, which can be loaded once at the factory and unloaded once at their final destination.

This happens to be an old Oscar Mayer car. That's right, the hot dog and baloney people. A lot of companies had their own fleets of box cars, which sped up the shipping process a bit and also provided a nice rolling billboard.