Nostalgia & History > Two Classic Grand Passenger Cars

Photos and captions from the Arthur Dubin Collection of The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

1. Description: Union and Central Pacific Pullman railroad car, "Pyramid." The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman in 1862, built luxury railroad cars to help improve the experience of its passengers.
Identifier: 400077

2. Description: The exterior of Reverie, a Grand Trunk Railway car, likely Grand Trunk Western Railway, which operated out of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Other major subsidiaries of Grand Trunk Railway included, Central Vermont Railway (Quebec, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut), and Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia).
Identifier: 400076


Enjoy,
Marty Bernard

---

---

All that extra painted on filigree is amazing!
Also the extra shine on the wood! Cool pics. Marty

And pen stripping on the trucks. (and not the plastic tape kind)

Except it isn't (#1). Lot 1563 Plan 644 (8 Section, Smoking Room, Library) built in 1889 - for the Pullman-Northwest Equipment Co. included two cars - SYBARIS, VACUNA.

SYBARIS is shown (which should, for many Chicago-land residents, bring up memories of interesting (?) commercials, and the term "no tell hotel"). PYRAMID is not a Pullman name, PYRAMID PARK is, but was also not a UP/SP car and was a 12-1 assigned to NP.

Both of these cars (SYBARIS & VACUNA) were in Builders' Photos - they are at the Calif. State. RR Museum in Sacto. Note that there were usually several copies of the BPs, and one was usually provided the receiving railroad, one the marketing dept., one the engineering dept.etc. If you find, as in this case, two external side shots of the same car (same side) many are *slightly* different - multiple negatives from multiple events (photo taking).

Still, an exquisite image. The Pullman Library has received over 100 glass plate negatives in the past year - they are, like most of that era, very clear, great depth of field, etc.