Does anyone know when, where, and on what railroad, the Pullman Company operated its last non-air conditioned sleeping car?
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It depends on what you are calling air conditioned. I was with a group that purchased the car Circumnavigators Club, heavy weight section lounge, in about 1965. This was right at the end of Pullman. The has steam heat and brine cooling system that uses 4000 pounds of block ice to cool the brine. Car was built about 1914, and brine system was added about 1934.
Good question, David.
For clarification, I call that air conditioning. Whether ice activated, steam ejector, or mechanical, if you don't have to open a window for cool air, it's air conditioned by my definition.
What I'm curious about is the last run of a completely fresh-air-cooled Pullman sleeping car.
They are still running at Steamtown!!. I rode them in 95 degree weather LOL
Well, what I have learned is that the first Pullman was air conditioned in 1929, that half of them were air conditioned by 1937, that most of them were air conditioned between 1934 and 1939, and that all light weight Pullman cars were air conditioned. I also learned that Pullman built 1200 troop sleepers for WWII which were not air conditioned. I have not learned when the last Pullman had air conditioning added.
None of the NYO&W's "Great Timber Fleet" of heavyweights had AC.....but I do not think they had any sleepers.
Peter
Originally Posted by wjstix:
Keep in mind too that Pullman had to divest itself of it's sleeping cars in 1948.
You caught me, Stix. You're right, of course, about ownership. I really don't think there were any sleeping cars operated without air conditioning after 1940, but I was fishing to see if anybody knew of an obscure Pullman route on a frugal railroad that may have been able to get by without.
