Monday, March 02, 2015

When Pullman cars took over?

From: "Al Donnelly" railandrunway@gmail.com

There seems to be disagreement over when Pullman cars took over and displaced Silver Palace cars. All accounts seem to trace back to claim that Gerald Best placed the date in the 1887 era, however, an Espee [Southern Pacific railroad] employee claimed in his autobiography that only Wagner cars ran on the route through the 1890's. The take-over of the Oregon & California in the late 1880's should have brought with it an existing Pullman contract for that road which was leased to the Central Pacific, but is there any real evidence of a contract for the Overland Route. If so, why did Pullman not construct service facilities in the East Bay until after 1900, leaving Sacramento's shops active in car building at least until there was a great fire at those facilities?