The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-19
CARE OF THE DINING CAR
INSTITUTION WHOSE MANAGEMENT
CALLS FOR MUCH THOUGHT.
The Cleaning of Pullman Dining and
Sleeping Cars an Important
Work-The Process.

Few travellers who hear the familiar cry,
Dinner is now ready in dining car realize
the amount of thought and labor that has
had to be expended in order to furnish
them with comfortable meal" said
Pullman official the other day. "'They do
not know that back at his desk in the main
office of the railroad company the dining
car superintendent is thinking hard of
something new to add to the service, that
a skillful force of commissaries are con-
stantly watching over the grocers and
butchers to keep them to their bargains,
and that whole army of conductors. chefs,
walters and car cleaners are kept at work
all the time to provide the best food that
can be cooked and TO serve it In which
shall be clean and attractive at all
times.
Cars are very much like children; no
matter how nicely they are dressed up, they
insist getting dirty as soon as they leave
the charge of their caretakers. The aver
age run of dining car is about $50 or 200
miles 1t starts on this journey spick
and span as a naval cadet on dress parade.
1t arrives at it's destination looking not
much cleaner than hobo.
Every railroad has at several points
along the line trainyards with side tracks
which are especially provided for the pur-
pose of cleaning cars-not only dining cars,
but Pullman parlor cars, sleeping and ordi-
nary day coaches, the only difference, far
| as the treatment of these cars is concerned,
| being that dining cars and sleepers have to
| be cleaned oftener than parlor cars or
! coaches. When dining car has made its
prescribed schedule run, during which time
there has been served in it two and on
rare occasions three meals TO from twenty
to one hundred or more passengers, it is at
| once switched over to the side tracks, where
| the car cleaners lose no time in beginning
their conquest of dirt.
NOVEL SWEEPING PROCESS.
1.-THE treatment given to the is uni
| form except that every so often, when it is
deemed necessary, the car gets what might
compare with Turkish bath hot air
| treatment. AT the end of the cleaning
tracks there is large tank when the air
! is stored, and it is conveyed to the place
needed through a long rubber hose. The
method of application is rather interesting.
| The air energies from the nozzle, not in a
round stream as in watering hose, but
through device known technically as the
comb. 1t is elongated orifice several
inches long, out of which the air energies
| with such ressure that it conquers the
| most obstinate dirt spots. Under ordinary
circumstances a simple sweeping and dust
| ing and polishing of brass ornaments and
mirrors make up the work of the car clean
| ers, so far as the inside of the car is con-
cerned.
"In the meantime force of men has
been cleaning the windows on the outside
of the car and has scrubbed and polished
the sides with cotton waste Others have
cleaned the journals and axle boxes The
! gas man has attached his hose and filled
the tanks with gas for Illuminating and
| cooking purposes, and another has filled up
the water tanks with drinking water. The
car which came in dirty with the dust of
the road and the smoke and cinders from
the engine now looks almost as good as
new and is ready for the commissary
agent.
This is a very important parsonage, at
| least so far as dining cars are concerned.
With the assistance of several clerks he
checks off every pound of meat, vegetables
| and groceries, as we'll as the silverware and
linen which the contains and which it
| took out when it started on its previous
| trip. This is by no means an easy job. as
the average dining car contains about 400
various articles. counting plates and glasses
| and spoons, not singly, but by the dozen.
| The commissary's list must check with
/ that turned in by the conductor of every
| car. This list contains enumeration of
| everything that the car carried when ii
| started out, of all articles that may have
been bought on the road and of everything
| that is left over. The difference between
| these items represents the food used on the
| trips for the meals. These latter are all
| enumerated separately, and in the case of
a cafe car where there is no table d'hote,
but meals served to order. each order is
shown separately. When this list reaches
the superintendent of the dining car serv-
| ice he can tell exactly how much the meals
served cost the company and how much
| the company earned lost
| SUPERINTENDENT LEARNS.
"But what is more valuable is that it
gives the head of the dining car service
taste of just how the tastes of his patrons
runs. After these two lists have been tai
| lied the car is reloaded for its next run and
! is then ready to start out again. All the
1 work is generally done within a few hours,
| and much of it has to be done at night for
| during the day the dining are gen.
| orally in use. The sleepers and buffet cars
| can be attended to in the day time.
"Sleepers have to be kept especially clean
! to prevent the accumulation of disease
i germs. In the West and in other regions
| where many consumptives travel some
| roads provide special cars for people so af-
| flicted. But, as a rule, healthy man may
| sleep tonight in a berth where the night
| before slept some sick person. In order to
| make cars as clean as possible from a SAM
| tary point of view the builders in mod
! ern cars have done away with carved wood,
| much plush and other germ acquiring deco
} rations which are difficult to clean Their