Welcome to

THE PULLMAN PROJECT

Copyright 2001 – 2010 Thomas C. Madden

 

Text Box: Pardon our dust while we move the pullmanproject web site to this new hosting service. I’ll be updating and editing the pages one by one, and will also upload a new version of the database incorporating all of the corrections found in the last two years. TCM 4/12/10

Text Box: HEAVYWEIGHT PULLMAN "BISON PEAK" AT THE ORANGE EMPIRE RAILWAY MUSEUM, PERRIS, CALIFORNIA Plan 3584A 10-section 2-drawing room BISON PEAK was delivered by Pullman on 12/31/1926. Pullman’s records do not list the initial assignment, but at some point the car was assigned to the Santa Fe. Steam ejector air conditioning was installed in March 1935. BISON PEAK stayed in Santa Fe service but remained Pullman-owned until sold to the Santa Fe in May 1953. The Santa Fe converted it to Coach 1127, and it later served in MofW service. The car is preserved today at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California. Tom Madden photo

 

A compendium of Pullman passenger car information

for the railroad historian and modeler

and

Gateway to the downloadable Pullman database – now over 13,460 records!

 

Welcome to THE PULLMAN PROJECT. Our purpose is to develop and present information on every Pullman-owned or operated heavyweight and lightweight passenger car throughout its service life, from the first steel car, JAMESTOWN in 1907, through Budd-built DREAMLAND in 1958. This will enable the railroad modeler and historian to know what any car looked like and how it was equipped, from delivery until it left Pullman control.

The principal resource on this site is the Pullman database. Information in this database comes from original Pullman Car Construction Records (CCRs), Car Shopping Cards (CSCs) and Descriptive List Update letters (DLUs). The CCRs and CSCs are housed at the Newberry Library in Chicago. There is one CCR per car, and entries on a CCR track all aspects of a car's equipment, furnishings and appearance throughout its life. There is also one CSC per car, but only for heavyweights that were still on Pullman’s roster on 1/1/37. There are CSCs for many cars with missing CCRs, and records have been added to the database for approximately 1000 cars whose CCRs were not in Pullman’s files. Over 200 DLUs were issued between 1942 and 1969, primarily detailing paint scheme and ownership changes. There is not yet a single source for DLUs, but thanks to the generosity of Ralph Barger and Bob Wayner I was able to assemble a complete set.

Additional resources have been developed and can be accessed from the Table of Links below. These range from single page ruminations to extended analyses. Most of these were inspired by a desire to understand how Pullman's design and construction practices evolved - a desire sparked by the CCR data.

The project, and this site, will always be works in progress. Not all of the links below are active, but material is in at least rough draft form for all of the listed topics. Other topics will be added. All CCR, CSC and DLU data has been entered in the database but corrections and augmentations are continuing. Look in the "What's New" section below for periodic updates.

What's New

May 30, 2008: Approximately 40 database corrections, additions and housekeeping items added to the Updates  page.

August 10, 2007: Twelve database records changed, one new record added, noted on Updates page.

Table of links

Pullman Car Construction Record database

Pullman's Descriptive Lists of Cars

Heavyweight Pullman body styles

Air Conditioning topics

Rebuilt Heavyweight Pullmans

HW Pullman brake systems

HW Pullman car ends

HW Pullman vestibule steps

Prewar Lightweight Pool Cars

Photo Gallery

Mexican/US and US/Mexican car name cross-reference index

Rivarossi, Bachmann & Branchline Pullmans Compared

Hobby manufacturers and vendors

Railroad idiosyncrasies

The Divestiture of 12/31/48

 

Pullman Underneath Equipment Layouts

 

 

Tom Madden

pullmanboss (at) yahoo (dot) com