The last Pullmans

[benjamintickell53]

50 years ago today, January 1, 1969, the last Pullman cars on the Missouri Pacific were arriving at their final destinations. The Pullman Company had announced months earlier that Pullman operations would end on December 31, 1968. Most railroads chose to continue sleeping car service, usually hiring former Pullman employees to staff the cars. Three railroads chose to end all sleeping car service with the end of Pullman, those roads being GM&O, KCS and Missouri Pacific. Only four Pullman routes were still operating on the Texas Eagle; St Louis to Houston, St. Louis to Fort Worth, St. Louis to San Antonio and St. Louis to Mexico City. The San Antonio Pullman line made its last run on November 10, 1968, and the other three terminated on New Year’s eve/New year’s day 1968-1969.

As a senior in high school, the question was whether to partake in the usual New Year’s eve festivities, or be at Little Rock Union Depot to witness the last rites — it was really no choice at all. It was bitterly cold, and both trains were late, about an hour late for No. 1 and several hours late for No. 2. A flimsy tripod, a marginally frozen cable release, and Kodachrome II film (a slooooooow ASA 25 for those who remember) all conspired to make my photo efforts less than spectacular. Computer correction has helped to marginally improve the images.

Inexplicably, I failed to record the train consists, or perhaps lost them in the intervening 50 years. However, for the record, the last Pullman cars southbound on Texas Eagle train Number 1 were Eagle Haven (10-6) to Fort Worth, Eagle Forest (14-4) to Houston, Eagle Tree (14-4) extra to San Antonio, and Crystal River (10-6) operating in the STL-Mexico City line but on this last evening reportedly going only as far as San Antonio. R.D. Whitesitt was the last southbound Pullman conductor out of St. Louis, detraining at Longview. The first three views show train No. 1 at Little Rock. The train was due in at 11:50pm, but due to late operation, these photos were taken well after midnight. Note the reddish glow in the second photograph under the more distant sleeper. A water line had frozen in one of the rooms, and carmen were using fusees to try and thaw it out.

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[attachment=4:246ko6yc]Tr-1-L-Rock-1-1-1969-Bill-Pollard-photo.jpg[/attachment:246ko6yc]

Number 2 was due in at 1:50am, but was marked up for 4:15am. When it finally arrived, it had the private car Chief Illini on the rear. The working Pullman cars included Eagle Rapids (10-6) from Fort Worth, Eagle Spirit (14-4) from Houston and Eagle Butte (10-6) from Mexico City. I tried to get photos of a couple of the Pullman employees, including the last Pullman Conductor at Little Rock, but keeping people still for a long time exposure was difficult at best. Regrettably, I no longer have the names of either of these men, but look at the bars on the left sleeve of both uniforms… four for the Porter and 5 for the Conductor — both veterans of many years and many miles of Pullman, but tonight watching their occupations disappear before their eyes.

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[attachment=2:246ko6yc]Last-Pullman-Tr-2-Little-Rock-Bill-Pollard-photo-L.jpg[/attachment:246ko6yc]

[attachment=1:246ko6yc]Tr-2-Little-Rock-415am-Jan-1-1969-Bill-Pollard-photo-L.jpg[/attachment:246ko6yc]

Because of my frequent presence at LRUD, I had become acquainted with T.S. Armstrong, who at this point served as the passenger traffic department official on duty for the night trains. At Little Rock, he (we) would walk through the Eagle from end to end, making mental notes of any irregularities and I assume making sure that everything was in order. Walking through the Pullman cars was like entering a different world, quiet, darkened inside, only muffled sounds, the roomette curtains and carpet absorbing any noise, and the “Quiet” signs always hanging on bulkheads at each end of the car as a reminder. While waiting for departure, Mr. Armstrong visited with the Pullman crewmen, asking if they were going to bump over on the Pennsylvania sleeping car lines, which would be the only remaining sleeper lines into St. Louis. Both men demurred, saying that they were just going to retire. Of all the things that have disappeared from railroading’s golden era, the Pullman Company is perhaps one of the more significant losses.

Bill Pollard

[attachment=0:246ko6yc]QUIET_0003-ws.jpg[/attachment:246ko6yc]

[peggyrothschild]

Bill
Nice write up. Have you considered passing this along to Kevin for the Eagle?

[benjamintickell53]

For those who are into the details… here is a list of the Pullman routes operated over the Missouri Pacific in the five years before service ended on New Year’s day 1969. A word about numbers…. there were car numbers (on the side of the car, along with the car name), loading numbers (the illuminated number in the car window which also appeared on your ticket), and line numbers. The “line number” as cited below was assigned by Pullman, usually blocks of numbers for each railroad. The line number was more of an accounting tool to identify specific routes, or specific car lines when multiple cars operated over the same route. A few railroads listed the line number in the public timetable, but MP was not one of them. This information was gathered from “History of Lines” volumes, and yearly financial statements 1-14B, all preserved for research at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

MP and TP Pullman lines operating from January 1, 1964 through December 31, 1968

LINE

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Endpoints

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Date Discontinued
3300 St Louis-Laredo-Mexico City– 12-31-1968
3306 St Louis-Fort Worth– 12-31-1968
3314 St Louis-Kansas City– 12-12-1966
3333 St Louis-Denver– 1-31-1964, operated St Louis-Kansas City, sleeper as parlor until 2-6-1964
3334 St Louis-Denver– 1-31-1964, operated St Louis-Kansas City, sleeper as parlor until 2-29-1964
3353 Chicago-Hot Springs (via GM&O)– 1-21-1964, operated St Louis-Little Rock until 1-26-1964
3385 New Orleans-Houston– 2-1-1964
3641 Houston-Brownsville– 2-1-1964
3703 St Louis-Houston– 12-31-1968
3704 St Louis-San Antonio– 11-10-1968
3710 St Louis-Hot Springs– 1-21-1964, operated St Louis-Little Rock until 1-23-1964
3710 St Louis-Little Rock– started 11-17-1967, discontinued 2-12-1968 90-day experimental service after line 3731 discontinued
3731 St Louis-Lake Charles– shortened to St Louis-Alexandria 1-8-1964; discontinued 11-16-1967
4085 St Louis-Fort Worth– 10-17-1966
4430 St Louis-Denver– 1-7-1964
4442 Baltimore-San Antonio– 5-19-1964, Slumbercoach in conjunction with B&O

[Clayton Bohannon]

…I had to laugh when I saw Bill Pollard’s Pullman sign about being quiet for those retired…I ‘liberated’ one from the New York Central back in the 60s and have it hanging on the door of my ‘man cave’…I’m retired…

[evangeline.higgins]

Bill, I really enjoyed your article, “The Last Pullmans”. It really brought back memories of all my train trips. (I am 80.) My Dad and Granddad both worked for the MP so everywhere we went was on the train. I was born in St. Louis, (Maplewood) and we began traveling by train before I can even remember. We lived all over the country from Detroit to El Paso.

Bill Herbert

[princessclyne69]

Bill:

I don’t have an exact date, but didn’t the Wichita-Denver sleeper make it into 1964? It would have operated with a 6-6-4 most of the time, in the lightweight era. Route was on 411 Wichita-Geneseo, then 11 into Denver, and reverse route was train 12 Denver-Geneseo then 412 into Wichita.

RG7

[benjamintickell53]

Ron,
I don’t think so… the Pullman History of Lines documents indicate that Pullman line 3744 provided the last Wichita to Denver sleeper service.

Pullman line 3744 was inaugurated June 1, 1940, operating Denver-Little Rock. It was shortened to Denver-Wichita on November 15, 1941. Lightweight cars were assigned to this route on September 1, 1956. As you noted, 6-6-4 cars were assigned for almost all of the time period that this line used lightweight cars. Pullman line 3744 was discontinued with the arrival of last cars in destination terminals on March 1, 1961.

Bill Pollard

[benjamintickell53]

When St. Louis Union Station first reopened as a shopping venue after sitting vacant for years, there were many excellent historical displays throughout the former concourse and train shed area. One such display detailed the trip of the last Pullman Conductor on the Texas Eagle on December 31, 1968. I never got the material photographed before the displays disappeared under later ownership, but part of the display included a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article which incorporated much of the information. That article, transcribed, is attached as a PDF file.

[attachment=1:1eily0zc]MoPac Pullman Making Last Trip from St Louis.pdf[/attachment:1eily0zc]

Similar coverage of the last day of Pullman service was provided by the Palestine Herald-Press, “The Pullman Departs Palestine,” providing more detail such as car names for the last southbound trip. The last northbound Pullmans in revenue service passed through Palestine in the early evening of December 31.

Bill Pollard
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[Bud Moss]

Back up the thread, Bill posted the final dates for Pullman sleepers. One thing caught my eye. The use of a sleeper as a parlor car on what I assume was the remnant of the Colorado Eagle. How was a sleeper used as a parlor car?

333 St Louis-Denver– 1-31-1964, operated St Louis-Kansas City, sleeper as parlor until 2-6-1964
3334 St Louis-Denver– 1-31-1964, operated St Louis-Kansas City, sleeper as parlor until 2-29-1964

Bill, I agree with Charlie, Kevin needs to put this information in the Eagle. Great stuff! Thanks.

Jerry

[benjamintickell53]

In this case, “sleeper as parlor” means that seat space was sold in the sleeper (first class fare plus Pullman seat charge) for daytime occupancy. At this late date, its difficult to say why this was done, but most likely the Pullman space was already being sold for day room occupancy between STL and KCY and Pullman or MoPac wanted to protect that service at least until other arrangements were made.

Bill Pollard

[Bud Moss]

Makes sense. I guess the Pullman sleeping room would be private and quiet. Even have your own restroom! Thanks. Jerry

[monikabidwill9523]

The use of the compartments sorta mimics European practice.

[benjamintickell53]

I have purchased a sleeper room for daytime trips many times on Amtrak, and when involved with the Amtrak Texas Eagle revenue management, we routinely sold “day rooms” between short distances (Austin-San Antonio, Chicago-Bloomington Normal, etc.) when the rooms were not otherwise sold for longer distance travel. I’m sure the same preference, a quite, private area with the availability of a table for working, was true in the Pullman era.

Bill

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