Private railroad car
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The private railroad car or private railway coach was a privately owned passenger car that would be added to the make-up of a train for the ultra-rich of the nineteenth century to ride in splendid upholstered privacy. The railroad barons like Leland Stanford had their private cars. Abraham Lincoln disliked the ornate railroad car supplied for his service as president: he rode in it only in his coffin.
Lucius Beebe and his life parter Charles M. Clegg owned two of the last private railroad cars, the Gold Coast and the Virginia City. Beebe's Mansions on Rails: The Folklore of the Private Railway Car (Berkeley, CA: Howell-North) 1959, presented the first history of the private railroad car in the U.S..
Dedicated railroad buffs rescued the last of the private varnish cars from scrapping; the chartering of these formerly-private cars has become a sideline in the upscale travel industry, with its own niche magazine Private Varnish. Amtrak regulations requiring head-end power integral with the rolling stock excluded the varnish cars of the earlier era. Most restored private cars have been rebuilt to modern specifications.
[edit] References
- American Association of Private Railway Car owners
- The Abraham Lincoln A 1910 corporate car made for Robert Todd Lincoln as president of the Pullman Company.
- Pennsylvania Railroad's private car, the Francis l. Sluter
[edit] See also
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