The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-06-08
THE MERITS OF THE VESTrBULE
GAR.

Speaking of the injunction in favor of
the Pullman Company, restraining the
Wagner people from the use of the vestibule
attachment, a prominent railroad man said
the other day "The vestibulc attachment
is one of the most important improvements
of the age toward the perfection of absolute
comfort in passenger car construction. Sew
eral years ago, when the dining car was in
trodueed and the practice of preparing and
serving meals on railway trains inaugura-
ted, it was found that timid people, espe-
cially ladies and invalids, experienced
great difficulty in passing from their seats
in the sleeper to the dining car when the
train was running at a high rate of speed.
The open platforms between the cars
formed a gulf over which they feared to
attempt passage in fine weather and which
in wind or storm, or both, was impossible
to people with delicate constitutions. If
the dining car system was to be a success,
this objection must be overcome, and the
Pullman people set themselves the task of
bridging the chasm. In order to accom-
plish this end they evolved and developed
the idea of the vestibule, and in bringing it
into successful usage the railway compa-
MES, as well as patrons, find that the orig
NAL difficulty has not only been completely
overcome, but hat a great many other
marked advantages have been secured in
the introduction of the vestibnle. One strik-
ing feature is the additional strength Gre
ated and distributed over the entire train
by the close fitting of the coaches to one
another and the consequently increased
power to withstand tho shock of a collision.
Telescoping is hardly possible in a well
equipped vestibule 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 train are endowed will
be readily recognized as a most beneficial
result. This stesdiness is noticeable at
once, but particularly p~erceptible to the &C.
cupants Of upper berths or those who, hav-
ing tried 10 read or write in the ordinary
car, undertake to do so in a vestibule train.
Int NFSSipdftH. ptShics pfoicCtiuS the pas
sengers in passing from end to end of the
train, serve the purpose of storm door TO a
residence, and prevent the sudden drafts
which the opening of an ordinary car door
always creates. Another feature, which is
prominent from a social standpoint, is the
deadening of the noise made by the rapid
revolution Of the wheels over the rails, so
that conversation may be carried on with
out in any way straining the voice.
THE constructors of these cars 'builded
wiser than they knew and succeeded in
abolishing many of the petty annoyances
that beset the railway traveller. even on the
~best,equipped roads"
''These cars he continued, 'sare as far
superior to the ordinary coach as the Pull
man is To the old-fashioned passenger ear.
They enhance in 4 great degree the pleas
ure and comfort of travel, and, as the
learned judge remarked in the decision
above referred to, they must have proved a
startling and successful innovation or q
competing COMPANY wonld not haye been
50 prompt in initiating them. The Penn
sylvaniA's New York and Chicago Limited
Express was the pioneer yestibuie train,
and the enormous popularity it has won is
the best evidence of public appreciation of
its merits.-Neu York TTmes, Nag Esd,
1895