Publisher's Synopsis
The Pullman Company provided outstanding service and luxury on rail routes, both in the US and UK, where the familiar umber and cream carriages started on the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway in 1818 until nationalization in 1948, and has coachworks in Brighton. In the 1920Æs, PullmanÆs fleet of over 8,000 cars carried up to 39 million passengers a year û almost one-third of the population of the USA in those days- and employed 12,000 porters and 28,000 conductors. This illustrated history examines PullmanÆs diverse cars, form itÆs spectacular custom-built wooden cars of the Ninteenth Century to steel cars in the pre-war years, and into the streamlined era, covering a host of famous names: Formosa, Parlour First Coach, Kitchen Coach in itÆs many varieties, Observation Lounge Car æCoconinoÆ, and many more. Packed with period photographs, many rare colour ones, as well as car diagrams and advertisements that trace the sleeper, parlour and restaurant cars, and show the luxury that Pullman aspired to, which has never again been done successfully on such a wide scale.
