Saturday, December 17, 2016

Pullman Erecting Shops



Paul Petraitis posted
Pullman erecting shops ca 1885
[Note the ornate shelter for the transfer table operator.]

Paul Petraitis commented on the above posting

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
Ever wondered why some people call an intercity train "the varnish." This photo will help answer that question. This 1891 C&NW chair car was built at Pullman, Illinois by the famous Pullman company. It is being move onto the "transfer table" to be sent off to C&NW service. The car is well VARNISHED inside and out. People should visit the National Parks District P:ullman museum at 111th and Cottage Grove in Chicago ( fine museum). On can stand on the site seen here. The photo is from the Smithsonian Museum.
Raymond Storey shared

Bill Molony posted
Ten new bi-level commuter coaches for the Chicago & North Western Railway, under construction at Pullman-Standard's Pullman Car Works in Chicago, 1966.
Carl Venzke posted

The Pullman Neighborhood was designated a National Historic Monument in 2015.

A timeline of the Pullman Works starts in 1879. But Pullman had already made a fortune jacking up buildings in downtown Chicago when the streets were raised so that an effective sewer system could be built. But after all of the buildings were jacked up, he was out of a job. So he started making railroad cars and providing sleeper service. Unfortunately, I cannot find a map as to exactly where his factory and town was. It was approximately between the Illinois Central tracks and Calumet Lake. Here is what the area looked like in 1938.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP
Update:
Chuck Edmonson posted
The eastern side of the old Pullman car erecting shops. Sixteen bays where the cars went through an assembly line type process. As the specific work was done in bay, the car was rolled out then moved horizontally 20 feet, via a dolly system to the next bay, and into the adjoining bay. The process was repeated until a completed car, minus a paint job, sat in the last bay. Painting was done at a separate paint shop, as the dust in the car erecting shops was pretty bad at times.
Richard Fiedler I believe by "dolly" you mean transfer table. A transfer table ran horizontally on 4 or more rails and could move cars between the bays.
Chuck Edmonson Thanks, Richard having a senior moment here
Stephen White House tour dates are October 7-8 this year . But neighborhood tours go on all the time . Stop by the visitors center at is 11141 s Cottage grove. Lots of changes coming for the factory over the next couple of years . The actual factory tours are on the first and third sundays of each month from now till late fall . At 11:15 . Come see us and our community.
Jeff Bloomdahl Updated information on the area!
https://www.dnainfo.com/.../pullman-national-monuments...

The Rail Way posted
Ruins of the rear erecting shop, Pullman works, Pullman, Illinois, 11 May 2022. When the Pullman Palace Car Company moved to its works to South Chicago in 1880, its founder, George Pullman, built a magnificent works on a 4000 acre site, which by 1884 also included more than 1000 houses for the company’s employees and their families. The works closed in 1968 and the Pullman company later sold to Bombardier Transportation. Designated the Pullman National Monument in 2015, a visitor center was opened in the former administration building and clocktower in 2021. The south wing of the front erecting shops has been demolished and is now landscaped as a park while the rear erecting shop (this picture) remains as a ruin.
Kevin Adams: No mention of the pullman strike of 1894 where he slashed wages in half, yet kept rent and company store prices at 100% causing a strike that left 30 strikers murdered by troops?
The Rail Way: Kevin Adams Terrible, an important story that needs to be told. Thanks for the reminder. I have more photos here, and will add in a future post.
William Cope shared
Where once the most luxurious passenger trains where built. (My photo)
Eric Elbe: There has been talks about restoring that building back to its former glory. That structure was damaged in 2015 by arson.
Terrence J. Quandt: The bases for the Pullman cars were built in Michigan City at the Haskell and Barker Car Company. The factory was located on the property that includes the Lighthouse Shopping Mall. The Barker Mansion is located a block east of Lighthouse Mall on 10th Street and is open for tours.

3D Satellite
Bill Molony shared
Paul Petraitis shared
We are looking north...to the left is the ICRR embankment dating from 1915, to the right is Pullman's Hotel Florence built in 1881 and a sign announcing the proposed VFW hall to built on that site (today serving as the Pullman visitors' center) in the center is the track for the surface line...when was the embankment added to, that is extended eastward ?
Daniel Bovino photo
Chicago Surface Lines Cummings streetcar #3381 near the south end of route #4 the Pullman neighborhood on February 2nd, 1952. The Hotel Florence is in the background.
David Daruszka The streetcar line was extended along Cottage Grove to 115th Street in July of 1910.
Mike Rusnak posted five photos with the comment:
I worked at Pullman Standard on 111th from '75 to '78. Snuck my camera in one day and snapped some pics of one of the last big orders out of that building, NYC subway cars. This was way before the days of CNC machine tools which is my world now. Lots of guys beating on steel with hammers and presses. We called ourselves "whitesmiths" LOL!
 Danny Halama I worked there in 75 in what they called the stands and then was placed in what they called upside down as a fitter.Good guys to work with.

Mike Rusnak The "Stands" look like pictures 2 and 4. It was quite the place to work, good money too. Too bad the strike in 77-78 killed it.

Danny Halama That one picture looked like water test. My friend Rich Forbes worked in that department.


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Steve S Czajkowski posted
Looking southwest from the Pullman clock tower at 111th and Cottage Grove Ave. A Illinois Central Gulf local freight heads north July 1977.
Bob Lalich That is a perspective I have not seen before! Thanks for sharing!
[Before there were drones, there were clock towers.]
Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted
Seventy five years ago, on December 18, 1940, the "City of Miami" entered service between Chicago and Miami on a hot 29 1/2 hour schedule. The seven car train was pulled by E6A 4000 and consisted of baggage/dorm/coach "Bougainvella", coaches "Camellia", "Japonica", "Hibiscus", and "Poinsettia", plus dining car "Palm Garden" and tavern-lounge-observation "Bamboo Grove".
The "City of Miami" was part of an effort by 9 railroads to offer a coordinated daily, all-coach service between Chicago and Miami. This service was to be operated by three different trains (the "City of Miami", "South Wind", and "Dixie Flagler") operating over three different routes. These trains operated every third day. Thus, each day there was a train running between Chicago and Miami. Each day a train departed Chicago at 9:40 a.m. and arrived in Miami at 4:10 p.m. the next day. Northbound, a train left Miami at 6:25 p.m. and arrived in Chicago at 10:55 p.m.
In a rare move, these trains were highly standardized. Fares were the same on all three trains ($23.25 one-way) along with menu prices (50 cents for breakfast, 60 cents for lunch or dinner). All three trains had 7 cars and were coach only.
The trainset for the "City of Miami" was owned by the IC, while the Pennsy owned the "South Wind" trainset and the FEC owned the "Dixie Flagler" train.
E6A 4000, owned by the IC, pulled the train between Chicago and Jacksonville. Then between Jacksonville and Miami the train was powered by FEC E3A 1001.
As with most IC passenger equipment, the "City of Miami" train was built by Pullman-Standard, who also took care of styling the train both inside and outside.
This photo of E6A 4000 and the train were taken at P-S's plant on November 25, 1940, shortly before the train was delivered to the IC.
Summarizing the comments and Wikipedia concerning the three routes (there were some contradictions, this is my best guess):

  • City of Miami and Seminole: IC to Birmingham, CofG to Albany, ACL into Florida
  • South Wind: Pennsy to Louisville, L&N to Montgomery, ACL to Jacksonville.
  • Dixie Flagler: C&EI to Evansville; L&N to Nashville; NC&SL to Atlanta; Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast to Waycross; ACL to Jacksonville.
The trains split in Jacksonville to take the ACL to Tampa/St. Pete and the FEC to Miami. The 1963 FEC strike forced the Miami leg to use SAL.

Rastislav Jendrek commented on the above posting
green, yellow, red and black
BlockClubChicago (source)
$56 Million Pullman National Monument Overhaul Has ‘Turned The Lights Back On’ In Historic South Side Neighborhood
[The project is scheduled to open in 2021. The cleanup of the 11-acre factory grounds cost $34m. "Right now, more than 15,000 people visit Pullman every year. Wilson estimates that number will grow to 300,000 once everything is finished, due largely to its national park designation. When visitors come to the historic site, they’ll learn how industrialist George Pullman’s ambitious experiment to solve poverty and unemployment set the stage for what would become one of the most violent labor uprisings in history."]

Pullman National Monument, National Park Service posted
Machines of Pullman
While the town of Pullman was known for its architectural sophistication and high standards of sanitation its factory was equally impressive. Helping power the equipment in the factory was the Corliss Engine. Named after the inventor George Henry Corliss. Its effectiveness was on display at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 providing power for running the machinery at the exposition.
Seeing its effectiveness Pullman purchased the engine to power car shop operations. As technological advancements progressed by the early 1900s the engine was scrapped after electricity replaced steam as the power source for the factory
Photo left to right: Corliss Engine at International Exhibition, Philadelphia1876 and Corliss Engine building at Pullman Factory. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress and Pullman State Historic Site

See Pullman Depot for a 1900 view of the factory in the background.

safe_image for Pullman National Monument celebrates worker history at Labor Day weekend grand opening





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