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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 14, Issue 8 (November 1939)

The Modern Sleeping Car

The Modern Sleeping Car.

Just eighty years ago, there was introduced on the Chicago-Alton Railroad, U.S.A., the world's first sleeping car. A few years later, the Pullman Palace Car Company was formed, with headquarters in Chicago, and sleepingcar travel became general throughout North America. In Europe, the first sleeping-car train commenced to operate in May, 1873, between Paris and Vienna, via Strasburg. Britain's pioneer sleeping car appeared in October of the same year, on what is now the West Coast Anglo-Scottish main-line of the L.M. & S. Railway, out of Euston Station, London. Our first sleeping cars operated between Euston and Glasgow, and were built by a Manchester firm. In each compartment three beds were provided by the simple expedient of pulling down the seat backs. Nowadays, both first and third-class travellers enjoy the comforts of sleeping-car movement, modern sleepers being equipped with air-conditioning, electrically-heated corridors, shower-baths and other amenities.