For many of us today, Amtrak has been the only inter-city passenger railroad. While the six Class I railroads can find passenger trains in component railroads, only the Union Pacific has a direct corporate lineage to passenger service. Long gone is the competition between railroads to provide a better passenger train experience. Also, in the distant past is the idea that the trip is part of the adventure.
The same eraser that claimed competition and the pleasurable adventure of travel, also wiped out passenger train perks. As has been said time and time again, Amtrak is a mere shadow of what passenger trains were. It is the pre-Amtrak perks, services, and styling — along with outstanding service — that made rail travel an enjoyable, looked-forward-to experience.
Let us take a look at five items no longer found on passenger trains. Some of the five may be familiar to you. Others will make you say: They did that on a passenger train? No way! And, just for fun, compare these five passenger train concepts with service provided by today’s herd-mentality airline service.
No. 1 — The Barber shop and salon
Looking one’s best while traveling was paramount even into the late 1950s. Part of the look for men included a clean shave and trimmed hair. For the ladies, a wash and set along with a manicure complemented any smart outfit. To name just a few, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, New York Central, Santa Fe and Union Pacific offered barber and salon services aboard some named trains.
Even in the name of a glowing appearance, there must have been a little trepidation while sitting in the barber’s chair, reclining for a straight razor shave aboard a train blasting along at 80 mph. Realizing the fear, the Santa Fe commented on its selection process for barbers aboard its top train — the Super Chief — indicating that all candidates were rigorously reviewed and only those with the steadiest of hands were placed aboard.
No. 2 — Drumheads
Today, when an Amtrak train passes, there is no external means by which to identify which train it is. There is no sign proclaiming Empire Builder, City of New Orleans, or Lake Shore Limited. The tail end of an Amtrak train is the aluminum color of some single-level car or a Superliner punctuated by red marker lights, a coupler and diaphragm.
For a short time at the beginning of the Amtrak era and dating to the early 1900s, named trains generally ended with a drumhead bearing the train’s identity. At first, drumheads came in two basic styles: A clear or frosted circular glass piece painted with the train’s name mounted in a metal container or a square or rectangular painted metal sign. The round metal container held lights inside for illumination through the glass. The metal signs were lit from the top or sides.
With the onset of streamlining in the 1930s, the rear observation platform was replaced with blunt or round-end tail cars featuring large windows. Drumhead design advanced as well, with back-lit metal letters or glowing neon identifying the likes of the 20th Century Limited and Union Pacific’s City of trains.
No. 3 — Signature lounge-tail cars
Through the 1920s, many of the top passenger trains ended with an observation, lounge, or parlor car, depending on the label chosen by a given railroad. Such cars offered a rear-facing, open-air platform from which to take in the passing scenery. At first, the observation platform was deep enough for two rows of chairs, but was eventually clipped to no wider than a standard vestibule.
When streamlined designs took hold in the 1930s, the exterior observation platform and interior space gave way to various designs, many being the marquee car for that train. In 1938, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Broadway Limited received a tail car with a buffet, lounge, two master bedrooms and a double bedroom. The lounge provided various seating arrangements looking out larger windows. The Milwaukee Road introduced its Skytop lounge cars in 1948. In two configurations — a lounge for the Chicago-Minneapolis Hiawatha and a sleeper-lounge for the Olympian Hiawatha to the Pacific Northwest — the cars featured a glass-paneled tail that wrapped around the last third of the body. When the Union Pacific acquired dome cars in 1955, one configuration was a blunt end dome-lounge
No. 4 — Open-air observation cars
Today, the open-air observation car is generally the domain of tourist and shortline railroads. If you can imagine, however, from the 1920s to the 1950s several railroads offered passengers an open-air car from which to view the passing scenery as part of a regularly scheduled train. The Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Denver & Rio Grande, Milwaukee Road, Southern, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific all added open-air cars to selected passenger trains. With the Southern being the exception, the railroads in question traversed the Western United States and Canada, meaning panoramic views of mountain scenery could be had from the open-air car.
The open-air cars were either built by the railroad’s car shop or converted from an existing passenger car. Both sleepers and coaches were converted into open-air vehicles.
No. 5 — Set-out sleepers
Let us say you are riding Amtrak’s California Zephyr westbound and have reserved a bedroom. You will be boarding the train in your hometown of Hastings, Neb. Scheduled time: 2:22 a.m. That’s right, you will be up waiting for your bed to arrive until after 2 a.m. Hopefully, the Zephyr is on time.
In Pullman days, there was an alternative: The set-out sleeper. As an overnight train passed through specified towns during the late-night hours, a sleeping car would be set out onto a siding at the depot. Passengers, sound asleep, would be allowed to remain aboard until 8 or 9 a.m. They would then depart having enjoyed a full-night’s rest. The Pullman porter would clean and reset the car once all passengers had left. Roughly 12 hours later the process would reverse itself. This time passengers were welcome to board the car and settle into their accommodations. Most would be asleep when, during the late-night hours, the car was attached to a scheduled passenger train. In the morning one would wake up further along the route or at your destination, again having enjoyed a restful evening.
Set-out service was costly for Pullman to operate, however, it provided a greater opportunity for smaller communities to enjoy sleeping car service.
Like this article? Check out the previous one in this series: “Five mind-blowing facts — Stilwell Oyster Car.”
Hi there,
I travel across America annually on good old Amtrak and wish to, first, point out the numerous articles reporting the pleasures of long distance train travel that frequently run in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc.
Second, no, we’re not likely to soon match some of your citations, but how about my own private shower and 42″ wide lower berth [vs. Pullman’s 34″], complete with four pillows and two blankets in my Superliner bedroom? And service attendants still deliver… just last November, drinks from the bar, ice buckets, and even tooth brushes!
Sometimes looking and inquiring works.
Everyone zeroed in on the set out sleeper angle, but I prefer to attack the level of service then and now.
My Dad and his business partners decided to relive their train travel days by taking an Amtrak train from LA to Las Vegas.
By the time they arrived at their destination, they were disgusted with a less than clean train with unfriendly attendants, and less than memorable cuisine.
This is opposed to my childhood adventures on the City of Los Angeles. When the diner closed, I would spend many hours spellbound by the tales spun by the attendants and porters.
“Today, when an Amtrak train passes, there is no external means by which to identify which train it is.” The Siemens Charger locomotives (SC-44) has a display on the front of the locomotive that displays the train name (sometimes). Not a drumhead by any means. I think the Venture coaches also have a window-mounted display with the train name. In any case, absent extremely good eyes, you’re unlikely to read those displays from a distance. I think they are intended for station stops.
I should also mention that people had to be out of the set out sleeper by 7:30 in the morning as the track space was needed for the morning rush hour.
I rode the set out sleeper three times between New York and Washington, all times southbound. The train service was called the Washington Executive, though the train it was coupled to was the Night Owl. Historically the train was known as the Federal while the Owl ran from Boston to GCT. You could occupy the sleeper starting at 9:30 PM. The elevator from the station to the platform was running upward, and the porter would reverse it to get you on the train. Penn Station was noisy but as a rail fan I found it all interesting. I don’t think I ever actually fell asleep before they attached the car to the train as it came in from Boston. The train did not have a dining car but sleeping car passengers got a continental breakfast served in bed at Aberdeen MD.
during the heyday of the executive sleeper between manhattan and d.c., i rode a number of times. as someone
very used to sleeping car travel, i was surprised at how noisy
penn station, new york was in the middle of the night. northbound was a bit better because you got on what was
then called the ‘night owl’ and moved. but once at penn,
the absence of movement made rest challenging. at least
once, i got up around 4:30am and just went to work. on another occasion, a group of us got bedrooms — this was
when the executive sleeper ran with heritage 10 & 6’s — had the partitions folded backand we never went to bed: we stayed up and wrote an
nbc anniversary special – that was a very productive trip.
Amtrak had a setout sleeper on the overnight Boston-Washington train between New York and Washington. The prototype viewliner sleeping cars were used for this service owing to the fact they had chemical-retention toilets. Prior to that, set out sleepers required having slop buckets placed underneath where the toilets ermptied, with some poor person having to empty the buckets of their contents.
I also rode the Executive Sleeper. Until the Viewliners, sleeping car toilets drained direct to the track. A set out sleeper required a “honey bucket” under the downspouts of the public toilet and each commode of an occupied room.
Enter the two test Viewliner sleepers. They came with retention tanks. They went on the Executive Sleeper right away; no more honey buckets unless a 10-6 had to substitute.
The required things needed today would not be available at most stations. Not to mention Amtrak does not have the extra sleepers it would need to provide that type of service. We are lucky that they still have two trains that have sections added or removed enroute to serve other routes: The Lake Shore Ltd. at Albany and the Empire Builder at Spokane, Idaho. I am sure they could pick up more sleeper traffic if set out sleepers could be done at larger cities on long distance trains that arrive at late night or early morning scheduled times. If they ever get enough sleepers and the stations had the facilities for just adding or disconecting a sleeper from the end of a train we maybe could see it done again. But if you need a switch engine or other high cost items I don’t ever expect to see Amtrak try that type of service again.
They used to have separate sections between the east and west coast of Florida as well but in a stupid economy move, the Silver Star calls at Tampa and then proceeds to Miami, adding a couple of hours to the journey for Miami passengers while the Silver Meteor puts all west coast passerngers on a bus. Interestingly, there were two different point used in the separation (and I think these changed between the Meteor and Star. One of the trains had the cars separate at Jacksonville, with one of the sections servicing the Seaboard route stopping at Waldo and Ocala. The other separated the cars in Auburndale, where the Seaboard and ACL crossed paths.
Amtrak had set-out sleepers into the 90s at least. At least twice I took a late night train from BOS to NYP which arrived Zero-dark-thirty, and I got off the car at 8am.
Wichita, KS. Union Station had a stub end track that supported a sleeper. I believe that sleeper was attached to the Chicagoan a Chicago-OKC train on the Santa Fe. I remember wishing I was older so that I could have utilized that service.
The “Set-out Sleepers” article needs a slight clarification.
The Pullman Company and the operating railroad or Terminal Railroad would make their set-out sleeper accommodation available to Pullman passengers during regular evening arrival/departure hours on specified tracks at the station.
Passengers would be boarded (from the track platform(s)) by Pullman Porters, acting as “Porters-in-Charge” of their Pullman Sleeper. Boardings (as stated in the Timetable) would cease between 10 – 11:30 PM so as not to disturb those boarded passengers who had “turned in” for the night.
The operating railroad’s or the station terminal railroad’s passenger yard switchers would then couple to the set-out sleeper and switch it to the set-out sleeper track. Once there, the Yardmen would set the brakes and connect the car(s) to the electric and steam-heat supplies provided on these set-out passenger sleeper tracks.
Before the thru train(s) arrived, the Yardmen would retrieve the sleeper(s) and move them to the spotting track siding. When the proposed departing train(s) arrived, the yard workers would couple them as required to the through departing trains.
In reverse. When a set-out sleeper arrived at its destination (after 1:00 AM), it would be uncoupled from the through train and moved to the set-out sleeper track again. It would remain there until 7:00 AM at the earliest. It would then be transferred to an arrival track, and the passengers could disembark up until 8:15 AM at the latest. They could have breakfast at the Coffee Shop in the station if they wanted breakfast.