George Pullman, who was born in the American hinterland, went down in history as the person who first thought about how to make rail travel comfortable. Until the middle of the 1836th century, the passenger car with its hard wooden benches looked more like a wagon for transporting livestock. The Pennsylvania Railroad, which first produced such cars in XNUMX, began providing passengers with mattresses stuffed with straw for the night.
George Mortimer Pullman, 1831–1897
By that time, Pullman already owned a machine-building plant in Chicago, where, in particular, wagons were assembled. Being a wealthy man, he spent his free time yachting on the Erie Canal. And one day I thought about adding elements of the usual comfort — mahogany, crystal lamps, silk and velvet upholstery — to the decoration of carriages for especially privileged passengers.
The Sunbeam wagon was built at the Pullman plant in 1888 for Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert Lincoln. Later used by Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt
The general interior of the Sunbeam wagon
Sunbeam wagon compartment
Thus, public and private carriages with luxurious eclectic interiors with elements of neoclassicism, Victorian style, and later - art deco appeared on the rails of America, and later in Europe.
A hairdressing salon in one of the Pullman carriages, decorated in an oriental style
In 1867, Pullman began to produce restaurant cars, where dishes were served on the flights, which were not inferior in their sophistication to the menus of the best restaurants in New York and Chicago.
This was the general Pullman carriage
A compartment in a Pullman Palace carriage
The dining room in Fair Lane, Henry Ford's private carriage, built at the Pullman factory
Pullman Town
Although George Pullman positioned himself as a democrat who offered "luxury for the middle class at an affordable price," he was a true dictator in his treatment of his employees. In 1880, the tycoon built an entire city with residential buildings, a school, a hospital and a church near the southern outskirts of Chicago, naming it after himself. He introduced strict rules and order in Pullman Town, obliging all workers to rent housing exclusively there.
Houses for workers. Photo by Chicago History Museum
Pullman Town Typical Worker House Plans. Image source: pullman-museum.org
The typical workers' houses were equipped with the most modern conveniences of the time, such as running water, sewage, and heating, but the rents were much higher than in Chicago. There was a dry law in the city, and Pullman also obliged the workers to observe a dress code: you could not appear on the street without a jacket and a hat.
Workers at the Pullman plant were required to follow a dress code when going outside. Photo by Chicago History Museum
During the economic crisis of 1894, the workers of Pullman's enterprises rebelled and organized a large-scale strike, which, however, did not bring them tangible concessions. But the authorities were interested in the situation, and in 1898 the state court annexed the town to Chicago. In 2015, US President Barack Obama declared Chicago's Pullman district a National Historic Landmark.
"Oriental Express"
The name "Pulmanivsky wagon" became common, until the middle of the 5th century it was the name of all soft wagons. But the Belgian engineer Georges Nagelmakers, who did not work with Pullman and returned to Europe, where he founded his own company La Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, remained in the shadow of his famous name, although he was the father of the famous Orient Express, which embarked on its first flight from Paris to Istanbul on October 1883, XNUMX.
In the 70s, a pair of antique carriages fell into the hands of collector James Sherwood, who later spent $16 million collecting the remaining surviving carriages and restaurants created by La Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits across Europe. After their restoration, in May 1982, the first updated Venice Simplon-Orient-Express set off again.
Restored Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
L'Oriental restaurant car decorated with lacquer panels in the style of chinoiserie on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
Etoile du Nord restaurant car on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
Venice Simplon Orient Express
A compartment in the updated Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
A compartment in the updated Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
Currently, there are six luxury trains in Europe that can be used to travel from Paris and London to Venice and Istanbul via Vienna, Prague and Budapest. They include three original restored dining cars: Côte d'Azur, decorated with Lalique glass panels; the Etoile du Nord decorated with marquetry and the oriental palace on wheels — L'Oriental, decorated with lacquer panels in the chinoiserie style.
A JP Morgan private car manufactured at the Pullman factory in 1924
Compartment of a JP Morgan private carriage
Interior of a JP Morgan private car
Well, most of the surviving luxurious private Pullman carriages, which were built at the turn of the 1924th and 350th centuries, remained in private hands. For example, now the wagon of the banking magnate, the founder of the JP Morgan holding, built in XNUMX, is being sold on eBay for only $XNUMX.
A feature of the Pullman carriages were open rear and front platforms with brass railings
Drawing of the Pullman restaurant car. Image source: pullman-museum.org
