The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1888-06-13
The Merits of the VestipuIe
Car

Speaking Of the Injunction in favor of
the Pullman Company, restraining the
Wagner people from the use of the yesti-
bule attachment. a prominent railroad
man said the other day The vestibule
attachment is one of the most important
Improvements Of the age toward the per-
lection Of absolute comfort in passenger
car construction. Several wears ago. when
the dining ear was introduced and the
practice Of preparing and serving meals
on railway trains inaugurated, it was
found that timid people, especially ladies'
and invalids. experienced great difficulty
in passing from their seats in the sleeper
10 the dining ear when the train was run
ming at high rate Of speed. The open
platforms between the cars formed a gulf
over which they feared 10 attempt pass
age in fne weather and which in wind
or storm. or both, was impossible to peo-
pie with delicate constitutions. If the
dining car system was TO be a success,
this objection mGSt be overcome, and the
Pullman people set themselves the task
Of bridging the chasm. In order to ae-
complish this end they evolved and de-
veloPed the idea Of the vestibule, and
in bringing it into successful usage the
railway companies, as we'll as their pat
rons, find that the original difficulty has
not only been completely overcome. but
that great many other marked advant-
ages have been secured in the introduc-
ton of the vestibule. One striking feat
ure is the additional strength created anil
distributed over the entire train by the
close fitting of the coaches to one another
and the consequently increased power to
withstand the shock Of a collision. Tele-
scoping is hardly possible in weIl-equip-
ped yestibule train, from the simple fact
that the steel frames arrest the force
which would drive one car into another.
The steadier motion with which the
closely united factors of the tram are en-
dowed will be readily recognized as a
most beneficial result. This steadiness il
noticeable at once, but particularly per-
ceptible to the occupants Of upper berths
or those who having tried 10 read or write
in the ordinary car, undertake to do 50
in a vestibule train. The vestibules, be-
side protecting the passengers in passing
from end 20 end Of the train, serve the
purpose Of storm doors 10 a residence,
and prevent the sudden drafts which the
opening Of an ordinary car door always
creates Another feature. which is PROM
inent from a social standpoint, is the
deadening Of the noise made by the rap
id revolution of the wheels over the rails,
so that conversation may be carried on
without in any way strsining the voice.
"The constructors Of these cars build
ed wiser than they knew and succeeded
in abolishing many Of the petty annoy
ances that beset the railway traveller. even
on the best equipped roads"
"These car" he continued, are as far
superior to the ordinary coach as the
Pullman is to the Old-fashioned passen-
ger ear. They enhance in a great degree
the pleasure and comfort Of travel, and
as the learned judge remarked in the de-
cision above referred 10, they must have
proved a startling and successful innOva-
tion or competing company would not
have been so prompt in initiating them.
The Pennsylvanias New York and CHI
cago Limited Express was the pioneer Of
vestibule trains, and the enormous popu-
larity it has won is the best evidence Of
public appreciation of its merits.r-
NeN York TImes