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Washington, D.C., vicinity circa 1928. "Southern Railway. Ladies' car," reserved for women and their escorts. National Photo glass negative. View full size.
These passengers are seated in the "sections" of a sleeping car. That is to say that each section converted to an upper and lower berth at night. The sleeping car porter, the gent you see in the background, would be responsible for making up the sections when the passengers were ready to retire for the night.
In the morning the porter would return the berths to the "day" position. Berths are the cheapest first-class accommodation on a sleeping car. One can see just overhead the part that when lowered will reveal the upper berth.
A "compartment," as seen in the video clip below, is a private room containing an upper and lower berth, along with its own toilet and wash basin. This is a more expensive first-class accommodation. At one time, the best first-class accommodation on most railroads was a "drawing room."
I love the pictures where you can kind of put yourself into the image. Sort of like when you watch "Casablanca" and you feel like you're actually in Rick's cafe sitting right next to Ilsa. What a great way to dream.
I was wondering if that meant it was a non-smoking car, but there seems to be a guy on the left with his back to the camera (some gigolo escort, I suppose) who is smoking. He's getting the laser-eye stare from the woman on the right, before there were lasers.
The expression on the porter's face is priceless too. Not his favorite duty.
The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's Clover Colony is a similar heavyweight Pullman -- the car used in the filming of "Some Like It Hot," so I see Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis when I look at this picture.
Here is my short video of a Clover Colony compartment:
I like the drowsy ambience of isolation in this one.
This scene looke like it's taken straight out of an Agatha Christie novel. You almost expect Hercule Poirot to walk in and solve a murder.
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