Large Scale Central

For Rooster: The CVRR's cutting edge technology of 1838

Prototypes
#1

I know you don’t do Facebook. Steamtown posted this story today…

The first sleeping car to operate on an American railroad was a car known as the Chambersburg. The coach was placed into service on the Cumberland Valley Railroad during the spring of 1838.

The Cumberland Valley Railroad (CVRR) began operations between Chambersburg and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1837. At this time, travel between Pittsburgh and Chambersburg by stagecoach took 36 hours. To get to Harrisburg, travelers would have to arrive in Chambersburg at midnight to catch the CVRR train east at 1 a.m. Then, after arriving in Harrisburg around 5 a.m., a traveler could take the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster Railroad to travel another six hours to Philadelphia.

To accommodate weary travelers on the long trip from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, Phillip Berlin designed a sleeping car called the “Chambersburg” for use on the CVRR leg of the trip. This was was the first car of its kind to operate on a railroad in the United States.

The Chambersburg sleeper car was divided into two sections. The first section seated up to forty passengers, and the second section was divided into three areas for sleeping berths: two for men, one for women. The berths were upholstered boards suspended by leather straps and folded against the car walls for daytime travel. Men’s berths were three tiers high while the ladies’ berths were a single level and of double width (2x19”).

Tallow candles provided light at night, and a wood stove provided heat.

Given the success of the Chambersburg, the CVRR had its carpenter, Jacob Shaffer, convert a day coach into its second sleeping car, called the “Carlisle”. Many other builders and railroads soon followed the example set by the Cumberland Valley Railroad.

Images:

  1. Drawing of the interior of the Chambersburg.

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  2. Historic marker recognizing Philip Berlin for inventing the first sleeping car in the U.S.

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  3. Map of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, dated 1919.

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3 Likes
#2

Yep, fully aware of them and have been collecting information on them and plan to build one for the museum (EVENTUALLY) with FULL INTERIOR (lol). Actually the carpenter that “built” the Chambersburg was Philip Imlay ( of Philadelphia) as Phillip Berlin contracted him.

As they say professionally “This author/rooster believes” the Imlay’s were several brothers in the Philly area that built and designed RR cars of the time. I’m not positive on this as I can only go down so many rabbit holes to the point of how much do I really care and how much of this is relevant to modeling one. The link below is an interesting fact you may enjoy and note the date of the patent.

http://www.electronicsandbooks.com/edt/manual/Patent/0/000/00000389.pdf

Another interesting fact is the CVRR was dragged into court a several times as George Pullman tried to sue his competitors numerous times. His claim (George) was that he invented and patented the sleeping car. However the defendants claimed that the CVRR had already manufactured them and had them in use before “his” invention. George lost the suit every time so eventually gave up.

Going off of memory on this but it’s pretty fresh as I was just into old CVRR books and newspapers not long ago researching the sleepers. Part of The Great Wagon road was not really far from you. Rt 16 then Rt 116 to RT 30 into Philadelphia were all part of the GWR I believe.

If you swing down into Mercersburg area and check out “James Buchanan” birth place you can learn more about the Great Wagon Road. Or if you have Gary’s number just call him up and ask him about his older brother (lol).

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If you decide to run down that way make sure you stop at Carrick Furnace on RT 75 and get more pics for Devon. Then if you really wanna do some CVRR digging you could check out the old bridges that still stand down that way and Richmond Furnace is right there as well.

Kalbach lumber had a narrow gauge shay that he ran up and down the mountain at Cowans Gap where he would unload his lumber to the CVRR at Richmond Furnace. Again you have a TON of RR history in your area other than the EBT that you can check out not far from home.

Perhaps when I head out that way I can take you on a historic road trip if you want since I don’t have my old “Road Trip” buddy any longer.

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https://www.gearedsteam.com/shay/images_k.htm

There is a quick history lesson by:
:rooster:

4 Likes
#3

Thanks for “the rest of the story”. I knew you would be familiar with it.

All of the places you mentioned we have driven close to, but never stopped. We drive through Cowans Gap quite a bit, also past one of the entrances to Buchanan’s Birthplace and have been real close to Carrick Furnace a few times too. I need to take more time to learn about the areas I’m driving through.

#4

BTW… I had just shelved the winter research on these sleepers so I could move on to more productive things with the weather changing and I have a short attention span as you know.
But NOOOOO you had to bring them back up with this thread. I could seriously kick your ass for posting this! :rofl:

#5

Such a pretty little Shay. How drunk on his own ego was Pullman to sue Berlin for having the audacity to invent and patent his invention a whole 20 years before him. :rofl:

#6

The Accucraft 2 cylinder “Plantation” Shay is very close to that, except the cab.

#7

I was seriously considering buying an ON30 2cyl shay just so I can run it as a “wait for it”
FLAT CAR LOAD

1 Like