A History Of Pullman and Pullman-Standard
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This page was last updated on March 22, 2013.
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How the Pullman Cars Are Named
From the September 7, 1895 issue of New York Times:
Miss Florence Pullman, daughter of the head of the company, is said to draw a salary of $10,000 a year for naming cars. In the performance of her duties Miss Pullman evidences a decided preference for names which sound euphoniously, and which have a soft and musical quality.
Many of the names of the cars are of Spanish origin. They are the names of countries, rivers, historic towns, battlefields, flowers, and geographic names miscellaneously selected. Such names as Guatemala, Brazil, Guiana, Peru, Chile, Mexico, and the Central American States are frequently seen. Floral names, such as Narcissus, Sweet Brier, Geranium, May Bells, and other floral favorites are common, while Windsor, Worcester, Indianola, and the names of States are also common. Germania, Italy, Egypt, etc., are often seen.
There is a, fine discrimination displayed in the naming of cars for special service. For instance, dining cars, are in all cases named after celebrated cooks, as Savarin, and the cooks of famous men and women. There are cars named after the cook of Queen Victoria (Francatelli) and of Emperor William of Germany, the President of France, and noted chefs of mention in the literature of cooking.
Smoking cars attached to such trains as the limited express are given names which suggest luxury and leisurely enjoyment, as Sultan, Khedive, Mussulman, etc. Observation cars are nearly always named after some famous place of scenic beauty, as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Appalachian, Watkins Glen, Niagara, etc. (New York Times, September 7, 1895)
Timeline
February 22, 1867
The original Pullman Palace Car Company was organized.
The Pullman-Union Pacific Association was formed in October 1871; renewed in April 1884; dissolved in 1898. (Eric Neubauer)
May 1884
A contract was signed between Pullman Palace Car Company and Union Pacific Railroad for the joint ownership of sleeping cars operating over Union Pacific and its subsidiary companies. The joint company was called the Pullman-Union Pacific Association.
August 1, 1889
A contract was signed for the joint ownership of dining cars by Pullman and Union Pacific. The first dining car was delivered to the association in November 1889. The dining cars were owned by the association and operated by Pullman. The association was dissolved in 1895 and most of the dining cars were sold to Union Pacific. The dining cars were numbered in UP's 300 series.
October 19, 1897
George M. Pullman died at his home in Chicago. Born on March 3, 1831 in Brocton, New York.
January 1, 1900
After buying numerous associated and competing companies, the Pullman Palace Car Company was reorganized as
The Pullman Company; consolidated companies included the Wagner Palace Car Company.
February 22, 1900
Pullman changed the exterior color of its passenger car fleet, when the Pullman Company recorded in its book of 'standards' the adoption of a "new body color for all general service cars." This book of 'standards' is in the collection of the Newberry Library in Chicago. (Adrian Hundhausen, via email dated May 6, 2012)
A quote from Arthur Dubin's "Pullman Paint and Lettering Notebook," page 10. "Until 1900, Pullman's cars were painted a rich, thick chocolate brown. In 1900 Thomas H. Wickes, then VP and GM, decided he had wearied of the brown and asked William Breithaupt, foreman of the paint department, to evolve a green color. The result was a dark olive green originally called Brewster Green and later referred to as Pullman green."
December 28, 1918 to March 1, 1920
Pullman Company was operated by the USRA, along with the nation's railroads
January 10, 1922
The federal Interstate Commerce Commission approved The Pullman Company's purchase of Haskell & Barker Car Company, the stated purpose being that Pullman needed H&B's facility at Michigan City, Indiana to increase its freight car building capacity. (New York Times, January 11, 1922)
June 18, 1924
Pullman Car & Manufacturing Company was organized from the
previous Pullman Company Manufacturing Department, to consolidate the car
building interests of The Pullman Company.
1925
The best years for Pullman were the mid 1920s. In 1925 the fleet grew to 9800 cars. Twenty-eight thousand conductors
and twelve thousand porters were employed by the Pullman Co.
(from The Pullman Virtual Museum)
June 21, 1927
The parent company, The Pullman Company, was
reorganized as Pullman, Incorporated.
1929
Pullman purchased controlling interest in Standard Steel Car Company.
March 1, 1930
Standard Steel Car Company was reorganized as a subsidiary of Pullman, Incorporated.
Standard Steel Car Company had been organized on January 2, 1902 to operate a railroad car manufacturing facility at Butler, Pennsylvania (and after 1906, a facility at Hammond, Indiana)
February 1931
Pullman built its last standard heavyweight sleeping car.
December 26, 1934
Pullman Car & Manufacturing Company (along with several other
Pullman, Inc. subsidiaries), merged with Standard Steel Car Company (and it
subsidiaries) to form the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company.
Pullman Antitrust Case (1940-1947)
July 12, 1940
An anti-trust complaint suit was filed by the federal government claiming unfair competition by monopoly.
Including among the complaints was that Pullman restricted the development of lightweight sleeping cars since 1930, and that Pullman coerced the railroads into using only sleeping cars owned by Pullman, threatening to remove all sleeping car service from operation on any railroad the pursued its own development of lightweight cars. (New York Times, November 8, 1941)
April 20, 1943
The federal court found that Pullman, Inc., did have a monopoly in the passenger car business (manufacturing and operations)
January 2, 1944
The federal court ordered Pullman to sell either its sleeping car operating company, or its car manufacturing interests. Pullman, Inc., decided to sell its operating company
May 8, 1944
A three-judge federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that Pullman, Inc., separate "completely and perpetually" its railroad-car building business from its sleeping-car enterprise, effective within 60 days. (New York Times, May 9, 1944)
May 12, 1945
Pullman offered to sell its sleeping car operations to the nation's railroads. (New York Times, October 30, 1945)
June 26, 1945
Pullman sent a Notice of Contract Termination to all member railroads.
July 1945
The Pullman Company relinquished control of its sleeping car business, but the final effective date was extended until all appeals could be settled, on or about March 31, 1946
Apparently the rolling stock assets were separated from the other assets of the operating company at the same time. Due to contracts already in place, Pullman-owned lightweight cars were sold to the railroads over which the lightweight equipment was operating. These contracts stated that Pullman operated the lightweight cars until "cancellation or termination" of the lightweight car operating contracts. Apparently that cancellation took place on the above mentioned July 1945 date.
1945
In the March 30, 1946 issue of the New York Times, in an item about New York Central's profits for 1945, it mentioned that in 1945 NYC purchased 142 lightweight cars from Pullman. In a separate article in January 1958, the newspaper mentions that NYC purchased the cars in 1945, but immediately leased them back to Pullman for operation.
October 29, 1945
A group of 22 railroads asked to intervene in the sale of The Pullman Company. They stated that they would honor all existing labor agreements, and that the company would be operated in the joint interest of the nation's railroads. The 22 railroads included: NYC, SP, CB&Q, AT&SF, Southern, UP, NP, Milwaukee Road, C&NW, PRR, IC, GN, L&N, ACL, B&O, N&W, Wabash, Nickle Plate, Rock Island, New haven, Seaboard, and Western Railway of Alabama. (New York Times, October 30, 1945)
The New York Times article shows that the railroads in 1945 purchased 609 lightweight cars from Pullman with a depreciated value of $34.9 million, and that they had an option to purchase 3,994 heavyweight standard cars, at a depreciated value of $15.8 million. Also, the western railroads had options to purchase 2,209 tourist cars, at a depreciated value of $4.4 million.
March 4, 1946
The sale of The Pullman Company to 43 railroads was appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court by the Department of Justice, which preferred that the sleeping car business be sold to Otis & Company (the elevator company). Both sides argued that the sale to either opposing party would be trading one monopoly (Pullman) for another (either the railroads or the elevator company). (New York Times, March 5, 1946)
The New York Times article shows that The Pullman company was to be sold to 43 railroads, with controlling interest being held by five railroads. Later in the same article, the total of railroad companies is shown as 49 companies.
June 11, 1947
Proposed sale of The Pullman Company to a consortium of 53 railroads for a reported $40.2 million was filed with the federal district court. (New York Times, June 12, 1947)
June 30, 1947
The Pullman Company, a new company jointly owned by 59 railroads, was organized to assume control of the interests of the former Pullman-owned company. (New York Times, June 27, 1947)
June 30, 1947
Pullman, Inc., formally transferred ownership of its sleeping car business, The Pullman Company, to 57 railroads. The change would put sleeping car operations on the same basis as diners and day coaches, which were already owned, operated and maintained by the railroads. The value of the deal was reported as being $74 million, including $35 million paid by the railroads to Pullman in 1945 for 600 of the company's lightweight sleeping cars. (New York Times, June 27, 1947)
(Editor's note: There seems to be a lack of agreement among the sources. What was the number of railroads that took over the operations: 43, 49, 57, or 59? More research is needed to determine the accurate number; which may have changed over the years due to sales and mergers.)
In his "More Classic Trains" published in 1974, on page 93, Arthur Dubin wrote, "Following the court action, the Pullman Company sleeping-car operation was sold to the 'buying group' of 57 (later 59) railroads on whose lines the cars served."
At the end of his article in the November 1969 issue of Trains magazine, "A Pullman Postscript, The World's Greatest Hotel Closes Its Doors," Arthur Dubin wrote, "On June 30, 1947, Pullman obeyed a court decree and elected to retain ownership of its carbuilding subsidiary, Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company, and to sell its sleeping-car operating subsidiary to 57 railroads. Sale price of the 731,350 shares of capital stock in the Pullman Company was over 75 million dollars."
Pullman's Final Years (1947-1969)
April 1956
Pullman-Standard built its last lightweight passenger cars; Lot 6959 for Union Pacific, the "City" series, with 5 bedrooms and a club section.
1966
By 1966, Pullman employed a work force of 788 and operated a fleet of
335 Mexican owned or leased sleeping cars and 63 dining and parlor cars in the
nation. (Pullman Guide, Newberry Library)
December 31, 1968
Operations of the Pullman Company sleeper cars ceased and all leases were
terminated.
January 1, 1969
On January 1, 1969, at the age of 102,
the Pullman Company ceased operation, though it maintained a small central office staff to
wind up affairs and handle an equal pay for equal work lawsuit (Denver Case) that continued
in the courts until 1981. The "Denver Case" was a class action suit filed in 1968 by Earl A. Love on behalf of porters-in-charge, requesting pay equivalent to that of conductors for equal work.(Pullman Guide, Newberry Library)
(The most visible result on UP passenger trains was that the Pullman name was removed from the letterboard of all Pullman-owned cars.)
The End Of Pullman
(Editor's note: No specific published work has been yet identified that carries a comprehensive history of Pullman and its corporate operations. The information that follows is the result of various internet searches, including various SEC filings, along with information shared from other interested persons.) (First compiled in October 2004, with numerous and on-going updates since then; much of this was added to the Pullman entry on Wikipedia in June 2006)
After the 1944 breakup, Pullman, Inc., remained in place as the parent company, with the following subsidiaries: The Pullman Company for passenger car operations (but not passenger car ownership, which was passed to the member railroads), and Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Co., for passenger car and freight car manufacturing; along with a large freight car leasing operation still directly under the parent company's control. Pullman, Inc., remained separate until a merger with Wheelbrator in late 1980, which lead to the separation of Pullman interests in early and mid 1981.
Early 1970
An auction of all Pullman remaining assets was
held at the Pullman plant near Chicago.
Late 1970s-early 1980s
The company continued to market and build
cars for commute service and Superliners for Amtrak as late as the late 1970s
and early 1980s.
December 2, 1980
The Pullman Company was dissolved. (Pullman Guide, Newberry Library)
The Pullman, Incorporated as a company remained in place until 1981 or 1982 to close out all remaining liabilities and claims, operating from an office in Denver.
1981
The passenger car designs of Pullman-Standard were spun off
into a separate company called Pullman Technology, Inc.
April 1981
Pullman, Inc., spun off its large fleet of leased freight rail cars as Pullman Leasing Company (PLCX), which later became part
of ITEL Leasing, retaining the original PLCX reporting mark. ITEL Leasing (including
the PLCX reporting mark) was later changed to GE Leasing.
Mid 1981
Pullman, Inc., spun off its freight car manufacturing
interests as Pullman Transportation Company.
Several plants were closed and in 1984, the remaining railcar manufacturing
plants and the Pullman-Standard freight car designs and patents were sold
to Trinity Industries.
1987
Pullman Technology was sold to Bombardier.
Using the Transit America trade name, Pullman Technology continued to market its Comet car design (first built for NJDOT in 1965) for commute operations until 1987, when Bombardier purchased Pullman Technology to gain control of its designs and patents. As of late 2004, Pullman Technology, Inc., remained a subsidiary of Bombardier.
After separating itself from its rail car manufacturing interests, Pullman, Inc., continued as a diversified corporation, with later mergers and acquisitions, including a merger in late 1980 with Wheelabrator-Frye, Inc., in which Pullman became a subsidiary of Wheelabrator-Frye, Inc. In January 1982, Wheelabrator-Frye merged with M. W. Kellogg, a builder of large, cast-in-place smokestacks, silos and chimneys. Wheelabrator-Frye retained both Pullman and Kellogg as direct subsidiaries. In 1990, the entire Wheelabrator-Frye group was sold to Waste Management, Inc. The Pullman-Kellogg interests were spun off by Waste Management as Pullman Power Products Corporation, and by late 2004 that company was doing business as Pullman Power LLC, a subsidiary of Structural Group, a specialty contractor.
As a non-Pullman side note, other construction engineering portions of Pullman-Kellogg were spun off as a new M. W. Kellogg Corporation, and in December 1998, became part of the merger that formed Kellogg, Brown & Root, a specialty contractor which itself was later sold to Halliburton, an oil well servicing company. In an eventual competitive move, other Kellogg engineering interests were merged with Rust Engineering becoming Kellogg Rust, which itself became The Henley Group, and which today is part of Washington Group International, a specialty contracting firm that competes directly with Halliburton worldwide. Washington Group International is the successor to the former Morrison Knudsen engineering and contracting interests, and is also the owner of Montana Rail Link.
After the last of the Kellogg interests of Pullman-Kellogg were spun off, and after the railcar manufacturing plants were sold, and with the formal dissolution of the old Pullman Company (the operating company from the 1944 split), the remaining portions of the Pullman interests were spun off in May 1985 by Waste Management, Inc., into a new Pullman Company. In November 1985, Pullman bought Peabody International and the new company took the new name of Pullman Peabody. In April 1987 (after Pullman Technology was sold to Bombardier), the name was changed back to Pullman Company, which in September 1987 merged with Clevite Industries. By 1996, Pullman Co., with its Clevite subsidiary, was almost solely a supplier of automotive elastomer (rubber) parts, and in July 1996 the company was sold to Tenneco. As of late 2004, Pullman Co., as a manufacturer of automotive elastomer products, was still under the control of Tenneco Automotive.
Sources
- The New York Times
- The Pullman Virtual Museum
- Newberry Library; Pullman Guide; PDF, 1.9MB, 808 pages, as of November 9, 2011
- Bob Webber via email on October 18, 2004
- Andre Kristopans via email on October 18, 2004
- Various internet searches
- Emails from persons who wish to remain anonymous
More Information
- Pullman Postscript — An article scanned from the November 1969 issues of Trains magazine.
- The Pullman Virtual Museum — Home of the Pullman Preservation Alliance, a service of the State of Illinois (http://www.eliillinois.org/30108_87/index.html) (broken link)
- Pullman Shops at Richmond, California — A site put together by Dave Roth, who acknowledges and thanks several other people.
- Newberry Library, Pullman Collection — Scroll down to "Pullman Company"; not much available on line - another case of having to visit their library to use the collections.
- The Pullman Project — Tom Madden's excellent source for Pullman car information; this web site focuses solely on Pullman's sleeper cars.
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