When did Pullman “section” cars go out of service?

I’m surprised to find that Via (the Canadian operation) still offers limited numbers of berth-type accommodation, and has done all along. I’ve never been to Canada, but she has so I suspect that’s the answer - she is confusing past trips. AFAIK section cars were out of use in USA by the 1970s, unless anyone knows otherwise? 

I crossed the North American continent on VIA Rail in March 2018. Both the "Canadian," Vancouver to Toronto, and the "Ocean," Montreal to Halifax, offered upper and lower berths in several sleeping cars.

Including the express I took from Toronto to Montreal, it was Budd equipment from the 50s all the way. What a way to go!

There have not been trains into San Francisco with sections since probably late 1950s, maybe earlier. My guess she is referring to a roomett.  

1970's Amtrak featured "Slumbercoach", Roomettes, and Bedrooms east of Chicago, and by the late 70's Superliners west.

Jon

This has turned into an interesting wander down memory lane.. I don’t have any records or mementoes of this trip, for obvious reasons.

From my best recollection, we had double bedrooms with en-suite for the NY-Chicago and Denver-SF legs, and slept in Coach from Chicago to Denver. This was probably because we booked as we went (no on-Line booking in 1978!) and being British, would have asked for “bedrooms” because that’s the British word, no roomettes etc over here.

A "bedroom" would have featured an upper and a lower berth, in a Heritage Fleet car.  A "double bedroom" would have been called a "suite" with two adjoining rooms.  I don't think Amtrak still had these at this time, but I might be wrong.

Jon

Santa Fe had open section 4-6-6 (4 bedroom, 6 Roomette, 6 section) streamlined sleepers in their "Valley" series.

Rusty

Ya a "section" was open; the upper berth (bed) folded down from the roof and the seats (which faced each other) were converted into the lower berth. The berths were only separated from the center aisle by a curtain. If you've ever seen the movie "Some Like It Hot", that shows open sections in use in the 1920's.

https://jdmitchelldesigns.word...ullman-sleeping-car/

The original California Zephyr had 16-section sleeper cars when it debuted in 1948, but they were converted to chair cars in 1963-1964.

@Rick Wright posted:

I crossed the North American continent on VIA Rail in March 2018. Both the "Canadian," Vancouver to Toronto, and the "Ocean," Montreal to Halifax, offered upper and lower berths in several sleeping cars.

Including the express I took from Toronto to Montreal, it was Budd equipment from the 50s all the way. What a way to go!

I took the Canadian from Jasper to Toronto in about 2010.  My wife and I had a bedroom with a wash basin and a toilet.  The car had several open sections at its end.  It was a refurbished Budd car from the 1950s.

I was told that the sections were used by economy minded Canadians and some government employees. 

The best part of the trip was riding in the wonderful Budd domes and the great full service dinning car.  All the food was freshly cooked on board and the table was set with table clothes, stainless silverware, and nice china.  

Riding the Canadian is a great trip back in time to era of elegant train travel.  NH Joe

I took the Canadian Pacific train east from Vancouver to Regina—I flew the rest of the way home to NY from there—in 1975. Had a coach seat, because I couldn't afford anything more. I did have a Canadian Pacific credit card back then, which confused everyone (an American with a CP credit card? Huh?) because I originally got it when I used to often take trips to Toronto, and stayed a lot at the Royal York Hotel.

Here's a photo I took when the train stopped in the mountains, en route:

According to my UP timetables the City of San Fransisco offered sections in 1960 but by 1962 they were gone.

According to my 1960 Santa Fe timetable there were no sections on the San Fransisco Chief.

And yes, according to my D&RGW timetables the CZ offered sections in 1962 summer only and by 1963 they were no more.

In a sense, "Sections by Pullman" going out of service was true when the Pullman Car Company went out of business in the 1960's.

But sections are still in use by VIA, as above.

Now did Pullman provide sleepers in Canada?  All trains?  Or just those which also ran in the USA?

@geysergazer posted:

According to my 1960 Santa Fe timetable there were no sections on the San Fransisco Chief.

Well, it's true, not all the way from Richmond to Chicago.  

However, there was a grey Valley series car (which included 6 sections) that ran from Houston to Los Angeles via Temple, Brownwood, Sweetwater and Lubbock, and was picked up at Clovis by the San Francisco Chief and set out at Barstow, for the Grand Canyon to finish the trip to Los Angeles.  On the eastward trip, the car was set out by the Grand Canyon and switched onto the San Francisco Chief at Barstow and set out at Clovis for the California Special to forward to Houston.  This lasted until the end of sleeping car service on the Clovis-Houston train in 1967.

Ya, Tom. I should have specified no Pullman sections to Richmond on the San Fransisco Chief (because the OP was remembering a trip from Chicago to San Fransisco). There is certainly a rich history of Pullman pickups and set-outs a la the example you gave. Alcoa headquarters was in Pittsburgh but because heavily international a lot of business was necessarily conducted in NYC. For many years Alcoa guys would walk from the Alcoa Building over to the PRR station after work and climb aboard a Pullman car that was parked there on a stub track. They'd settle down and a night train would pick up their car and they'd step off in NYC in time for morning business meetings. Dad talked about how much those guys hated the switch to air travel because it was hectic with no rest.