Sleeping Car

The sleeping car is a railroad car on a train with sleeping facilities. The more luxurious types have real beds and compartments not shared with strangers, while the couchette car with berths is more basic, with compartments for four or six people, where seats convert into double- or triple-level bunk-beds, respectively.

The cars made long-distance travel by train more comfortable and popular since it allowed sleeping on the train. George Pullman invented the sleeping car in 1864.

The Pullman company owned and operated most such cars in the United States, attaching them to passenger trains operated by the railways. All-Pullman trains included the Chief and Super-Chief on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad and the various Zephyrs operated by other western railroads. Pullman cars were normally a dark Pullman green although some were painted in the host railroad's colors; they were also named, and did not carry visible numbers.

After World War II the American railroads bought out the Pullman company's sleeping car business and operated the cars themselves, though they were still named rather than numbered and carried the word 'Pullman' on them. Pullman, as Pullman-Standard, continued in the manufacture of railroad cars until 1980. With the abandonment of passenger service by American railroads, all remaining passenger operations but a few were transferred to Amtrak which now operates the remaining sleeping car services.

One unanticipated social consequence of the sleeping car was its convenience as a rendezvous for lovers, anonymous, and, by definition, away from the constraints of home. Important scenes in such films as Some Like It Hot and North by Northwest take place in Pullman cars.

Another unanticipated consequence was the effect of the Pullman on civil rights and African American culture. Each Pullman car came to be managed by a uniformed porter. These were almost always African-Americans and, by convention, were all called "George". Although this was servant's work, it was relatively well paid and Pullman porters became leaders in the black communities where they lived, forming a nucleus of the middle class. And, since all other railroad trades were unionized, the porters were unionized as well. Their union became an important source of strength for the burgeoning civil rights movement in the early 20th century, notably under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph.

Because they moved all across the country and stayed in local black communities between shifts, Pullman porters also became an important means of communication for news and cultural information of all kinds. The black newspaper Chicago Defender gained a national circulation in this way. In particular, porters used to sell phonograph records bought in the great metropolitan centers greatly adding to the distribution of jazz and blues and the popularity of the artists.

In Europe the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, named after the French word for sleeping car, first focused on these, but later operated whole trains, including the Simplon-Orient Express, Nord Express, Train Bleu, Golden Arrow, and the Transsiberien (on the Trans-Siberian railway). Today it restricts itself again to sleeping cars, as well as catering in the train.

Famous trains

External Links

Sleeping in Comfort: Pullman Fundamentals
www.wagons-lits-paris.com, extensive pages on the Orient Express and other famous European trains

Synonyms within Context: Sleeping Car

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Vehicle	Train; accommodation train, passenger train, express trail, special train, corridor train, parliamentary train, luggage train, freight train, goods train; st class train, nd class train, rd class train, st class carriage, nd class carriage, rd class carriage, st class compartment, nd class compartment, rd class compartment; rolling stock; horse box, cattle truck; baggage car, express car, freight car, parlor car, dining car, Pullman car, sleeping car, sleeper, dome car; surface car, tram car, trolley car; box car, box wagon; horse car; bullet train, shinkansen, cannonball, the Wabash cannonball, lightning express; luggage van; mail, mail car, mail van.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Modern Usage: Sleeping Car

Commercial Usage: Sleeping Car

Photo Album: Sleeping Car

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Ashley Totten, union official for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, an unidentified man, Asa Philip Randolph, and Maida Springer-Kemp, union official for International Packing House workers] / A. Hansen Studio, New York, N.Y. Credit: Library of Congress.		Mr. Asa Philip Randolph, President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, with officers and organizers of the Railway Workers Union at their Union Headquarters in Rangoon. Credit: Library of Congress.
	The Girl Friends for the FEPC Fight presenting check of $500 to Asa Philip Randolph, in office of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in New York City] / P. Credit: Library of Congress; photo by Rufus Merritt..		Porter handing young woman a glass of water in railroad sleeping car. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Sleeping Car

Modern Translation: Sleeping Car

Language		Translations for "sleeping car"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		vagon-shtrat (sleeper), vagon fjetjeje. (various references)

Arabic		‏عربة النوم. (various references)

Bulgarian		спален вагон (sleeper, wagon lit). (various references)

Czech		spací vùz. (various references)

Danish		sovevogn (couchette coach, sleeper, slumber coach). (various references)

Dutch		slaaprijtuig (sleeping-car), lig-of slaaprijtuig (couchette coach), couchette. (various references)

Estonian		magamisvagun. (various references)

Finnish		makuuvaunu (sleeper, sleeping-car). (various references)

French		wagon-lit (slumber coach), voiture-lit (slumber coach). (various references)

German		Schlafwagen (pullman, sleeper, sleeping-car). (various references)

Greek		κλινάμαξα (couchette coach, sleeper, slumber coach), κλινοθέσιο (couchette coach), βάγκον λι (wagon lit), άμαξα κλινοθεσία (couchette coach). (various references)

Hungarian		hálókocsi (sleeper, sleeping-car, wagon lit). (various references)

Italian		vagone letto (sleeper). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		寝台車 (sleeper). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		し�"� いしゃ (sleeper), カースリーパー . (various references)

Pig Latin		eepingslay arcay

Portuguese		carruagem-cama (sleeping-car). (various references)

Romanian		vagon de dormit (sleeper). (various references)

Russian		спальный вагон (caboose, sleeper, sleeper car, sleepers, sleeping-car, wagon lit, wagon-lit). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		spavaća kola (couchette, sleeper, wagon lit). (various references)

Spanish		coche-camas (sleeper), coche-cama (sleeper, sleeping-car), coche dormitorio (sleeper), coche de plazas acostadas (couchette coach), coche cama (coach with reclining berths or couchettes, slumber coach). (various references)

Swedish		sovvagn (sleeper, sleeping-car, wagon lit). (various references)

Turkish		yataklı vagon (pullman, sleeper, sleeping saloon, wagon lit). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Anagrams: Sleeping Car

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-g-i-l-n-p-r-s"
	-1 letter: percalines, reclasping.
	-2 letters: algerines, clearings, escarping, graplines, larcenies, parceling, pencilers, percaline, precleans, prelacies, relapsing, releasing, reliances, repealing, replacing, replicase, rescaling, resealing, respacing, sacrilege, spanglier, specialer.
	-3 letters: agencies, algerine, alieners, aligners, anergies, calipees, calipers, capelins, capering, carlines, carlings, carpings, clangers, clasping, cleaners, cleanser, clearing, clergies, clingers, creasing, creeling, creeping, cringles, elapsing, elegiacs, engrails, enlarges.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-e-e-g-i-l-n-p-r-s"
	+2 letters: letterspacing.
	+3 letters: letterspacings.
	+4 letters: hypervigilances, overspeculating.
	+5 letters: overspecializing, supercalendering.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	My name's not George : the story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters : personal reminiscences of Stanley G. Grizzle (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression	Frequency per Day
the sleeping car	13
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Sleeping Car

Definition: Sleeping Car

Sleeping Car

Noun

Synonyms: Sleeping Car

Specialty Definition: Sleeping car

External Links

Synonyms within Context: Sleeping Car

Vehicle

Crosswords: Sleeping Car

Modern Usage: Sleeping Car

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Sleeping Car

Books

Photo Album: Sleeping Car

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Sleeping Car

the sleeping car

Modern Translation: Sleeping Car

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Estonian

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hungarian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Anagrams: Sleeping Car

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

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