Pullman (car or coach)

Pullman VRIC7 rail car sponsored by Kitchi Gammi Club

Pullman is the term for railroad sleeping cars that were built and operated by the Pullman Company (founded by George Pullman) from 1867 to December 31, 1968.

The term also refers to railway dining cars in the U.S. and Europe that were operated by the Pullman Company, as well as lounge cars operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits in France, and the British Pullman Car Company in Great Britain.

Other uses

The nickname Pullman coach was used in some European cities for the first long (four-axle) electric tramcars whose appearance resembled the Pullman railway cars and that were usually more comfortable than their predecessors. Such coaches (Russian: пульмановский вагон, romanized: pul'manovsky vagon) ran in Kyiv from 1907^[1]^[2] and in Odessa from 1912.^[3]

In the 1920s, tramcars nicknamed Pullmanwagen in German ran in Leipzig, Cologne, Frankfurt and Zürich.^[4]

Mercedes-Benz 600 "Pullman" limousine, carrying US President Carter in Liberia, 1978

In some Western European countries in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, some especially luxurious motor coaches were sometimes referred to as Auto-Pullmans.

In 1963, the luxurious Mercedes-Benz 600 was introduced, with a range including a long wheelbase limousine version called Pullman. Later, stretched versions of regular Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars were also called Pullman.

In Greek and Italian, the word "pullman" is used to refer to a coach bus. In Greek, it would be spelled "πούλμαν".

In Latin America, pullman may refer to a luxury bus as well as to a railroad sleeping car.

A Pullman loaf is a type of long, square bread originally developed to be baked in the small kitchens of Pullman rail cars.

Gallery

The first Pullman sleeping car
Former Brighton Belle Pullman carriage at London Victoria, now part of the Venice-Simplon Orient Express fleet
"Pullman" tramcar in Kyiv, 1930
A Pullman bus of the Nairn Transport Company for the Damascus- Baghdad service

See also

Starlight Express, a train musical in which two characters are modeled on a Pullman.
Clerestory § Transportation, Railway Coach roof design following the Pullman American influence.

Notes

^ Stefan Mashkevich. Pullman, the first four-axle car in Kyiv
^ Ю.Ю. Струк (ред.). Киевский трамвай за сорок лет (1892–1932). Киевский коммунальный трамвайный трест, 1933, p. 63 (in Russian)
^ История Одесского трамвая (in Russian)
^ Hans Bodmer. Das Tram in Zürich, 1928 bis 1962. p. 11 (in German)

References

Welsh, Joe; Bill Howes (2004). Travel by Pullman: a century of service. Saint Paul, MN: MBI. ISBN 0760318573. OCLC 56634363.
Barger, Ralph L. (1988). A Century of Pullman Cars, Volume I, Alphabetical List. Greenberg Publishing Company, Inc.
Barger, Ralph L. (1990). A Century of Pullman Cars, Volume II, The Palace Cars. Greenberg Publishing Company, Inc.

External links

The Pullman Project
Canadian National Railways Sleeping Car No. 1683 St. Hyacinthe—photographs and short history of a Sleeping Car built in 1929.
Chicago Historical Society's Pullman website
Pullman Prototypes—Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL newspaper)