SLEEPING CARS ON THE ERIE FIFTY-SIX
YEARS AGO.
George M. Pullman nor Webster Wagner is any more entitled to
the right of being called the inventor of the sleeping car than
the man in the moon is entitled to be called the inventor of the
sewing machine. As to Pullman (being of Erie interest), his chief
claim to the monopoly in the sleeping-car patent was founded on
his control as assignee of patents issued to Eli Wheeler, of Elmira,
September 20, 1859, which patents Rudolph Dirks, of Sumneystown,
Pa., claims were his; but even the Wheeler patents were antedated
by the Charles McGraw patents more than twenty yearsDecernber
10, 1838, being the first one. Sleeping cars were in use years
before Pullman or Wagner was ever heard of, and among the very
earliest of railroads to have them was the Erie, which had two
in 1843, although the railroad was only three hours' journey in
length. These cars were two of six cars of extraordinary size,
built by John Stephenson, one of the pioneer car builders of the
country. The models of the cars were made by Thomas Brown, of
the Stephenson works, then in Harlem. They were not intended as
sleeping cars, as the term is now known but to be used by passengers
if they chose, for reclining and sleeping during their journey.
Railroads were not long enough in those days to require much night
travel. But these cars, according to the positive statement of
John Stephenson himself, were built with the idea that they were
to be slept in, and for that purpose.
These pioneer sleeping cars were known by the name of the "Diamond
Cars," from the fact that the sides of the frame of the cars
were built trestle form, thus making the spaces for the windows
diamond-shaped, so that the windows were necessarily of that shape.
The frames of the seats were stationary, two seats being placed
back to back, causing each pair of seats to face each other. The
cushions were loose from the frames of the seats, and a rod or
bar could be slid from under one seat, across the opening between
two facing seats at the front or aisle-side, and fitted in a hole
in the frame of the other seat. The aisle ends of the seat cushions
were laid upon this bar, the other ends resting upon the truss
plank at the wall side of the car, the cushions being pushed forward
over the foot space, and supported as above. The back cushions
were moved down to take the place of the seat cushions, thus making
a platform or bed. The bar had a little lip on it, so that when
in the hole in the other seat it could not get out without being
raised, and the ends of the seat cushions abutted against the
forward ends of the arms so they could not slip out into the aisle.
There was a partition against which the back cushions rested,
forming head and footboards between the beds. When the cushions
were in place they made two facing seats. The passengers occupying
the seats manipulated the bar and changed the seats into a bed
at pleasure. There were two of these cars. Six seats or beds were
on each side. There were no bed clothes or pillows. The cushions
were black hair cloth. There was a large diamond-shaped window
opposite each seat, and one in the middle between each pair of
seat backs, and a small window in each door. The cars were eleven
feet wide.
Archippus Parish was car-builder foreman of the car shops at
Piermont in 1843, when the two diamond cars came to the road from
Stephenson's car works at Harlem. They were delivered at Piermont
from a ferry-boat. Parish had them taken off the boat and superintended
the putting of the trucks under them. The cars were named "Erie"
and "Ontario." The "Ontario" for a time was
run on a train known as the "Thunder and Lightning Milk Train,"
which ran between Otisville and Piermont. Parish afterward went
on the road as conductor, and ran between Piermont and Otisville
from 1846 to 1847.
These curious forerunners of the luxurious sleeping cars of
the present day were soon found to be too heavy for practical
use on the railroad at that day, and they were placed aside, to
be used only in emergencies.
A necessary adjunct of the railroad for years was a wood train,
which passed over the line gathering up wood as it was brought
in from the woods and ranked up at convenient places, and delivering
it at points where it was needed for fuel. The men in charge of
the wood train made application to have one of the diamond cars,
but Superintendent of Transportation S. S. Post said he could
not spare either of them, as the Company was short of rolling
stock, and he frequently had to put them on passenger trains to
help out. The end of the diamond cars was that they became boardinghouse
cars for track laborers. In 1850 the "Erie" was on a
siding at Piermont, and the "Ontario" at Suffern, and
gradually fell to pieces and disappeared years ago. They were
sleeping cars, however, and when, in 1879, the Pullman Company
brought suit against the Wagner, or New York Central, Sleeping
Car Company, to recover damages for infringement on the Pullman
patents, Pullman was so nonplussed at the revelations made in
regard to the Erie diamond cars of 1843 that a halt was called
in the proceedings, and both Pullman and Wagner wisely concluded
that it would not be well to go any further in the legal test
of their "rights," and agreed to a compromise, by which
they both continued to share in the profits of an invention which
was old long before either of the claimants had thought of making
it his own.
About the time of the coming of the diamond cars on the railroad,
the first cars with swinging-back seats were put on. They were
made by Eaton & Gilbert, of Troy, N. Y.
(From the Goshen Independent Republican, June 19, 1847.)
The New York and Erie Railroad Company have been treating their
patrons and themselves to some new and elegant cars. The old ones
are pretty good, but the new ones are perfect "dazzle eyes."
The seats are mahogany, trimmed with figured crimson velvet. The
stiles of the body inside are also of mahogany and the panels
curled maple. The windows are protected by blinds, and the cars
are lighted and ventilated in the most perfect manner. Altogether,
they are fine specimens of utility, taste and elegance.
About the time the Erie began running its trains through to
Jersey City, a man with some genius originated a chair seat for
passenger coaches. The prevailing seat was the plain kind, with
low back; a comfortable seat, but unless a person could have a
full seat in which to recline, a night journey was anything but
pleasurable. The chair referred to was reversible, and much higher
in the back, and provided with a headrest very similar to those
in use upon barbers' chairs. These chairs were most highly appreciated.
Persons intending to take the night train would go or send to
Jersey City early, buy a ticket, and secure a night chair, thus
enjoying the greatest luxury in travelling then known. Prior to
the introduction of this chair, "fakirs" haunted the
station with a device to aid the passengers to enjoy sleep. It
was an upright piece of steel that would reach from the middle
of the back of the head to a point below the shoulder blades.
Crossing this horizontally were four other pieces of steel. When
put in use, the appliance was placed between the back of the person
and the back of the seat, with the passenger's head resting on
the top cross-piece and the point where it was riveted to the
upright piece. Thus the head rested upon a spring, and responded
to the jar or motion of the car. These contrivances sold "on
sight" at $1 each.
In 1851, after the Erie had arranged with the Paterson and
Ramapo and the Paterson and Hudson River railroads for transfer
of its passengers, mail, express, and baggage between Suffern
and Jersey City, D. H. Conklin was sent to Suffern as telegraph
operator, and to put the instruments in the waiting room of the
other railroads. The situation was too much exposed, and Superintendent
Minot gave him permission to take the body of an old baggage car
that stood on a siding at, Chester junction. This was ordered
to Suffern, and was placed at the side of the Erie track as an
office. This car had a cupola in its centre, and a colonnade or
gangway entirely around it. At the time this old car had been
placed in service the railroad probably had no time-card, or if
it had, the train arriving first at a given point waited a stipulated
time and then proceeded, running by "sight," with a
man seated in the cupola, whose duty it was to watch for the train
against which they were running. The brake wheel of the car was
in the cupola. It is only within very recent years that a caboose
with cupola and brake wheel therein was introduced on railroads,
and claimed as a new idea.
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