THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILWAY.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 702, 25 August 1870, Page 3

THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILWAY.

(From the News of the World.) The train consisted of smoking, hotel, drawing-room, sleeping, baggage, and commissary cars; had a library and two parlor organs on board, a barber's shop, and a printing office, at which a miniature newspaper was published at intervals during the journey (as is sometimes done, in manuscript, by passengers to relieve the tedium of a long sea trip). The whole arrangement was that of a firstclass club—' it was a village on wheels.' Excellent meals were served on board the train; the commissary car was {irovided with wine-room, ice-house, arder and kitchen. And last of all, the train carried its own gas-making apparatus. Such trains as the above could be secured by any large body of travellers, and the extra expense for so much comfort would be comparatively trifling, at least to the wealthy. The bi-weekly 'Atlantic Hotel Express' from San IVancisco to New York furnishes almost precisely the accommoda-

tion mentioned. The regular daily overland express halts thice a day for meals at way stations, but always has sleeping cars attached, and the best kind of drawing room and smoking cars. Many minor comforts unknown in Europe are regularly provided in all American trains. Each car is provided with a filter of ice-water, small stoves for use in cold weather, and a very important item—closets. The passage way running through the centre of the cars appears unusual to Europeans, but it is very convenient. It enables one to walk forward through the entire train to the smoking-car, leave uncongenial, or join congenial company, and is much less inconvenient to the rest of the passengers than in the European close coupe system. There is nothing in Europe, as the writer, himself an Englishman, and somewhat a traveller, well knows, approaching the comfort of the Pullman Sleeping Cars. In the day time they resemble the best class of salooncars, and are handsomely fitted with mirrors, gilding, cushions, and carpets. In the evening the steward—usually a " colored gentleman"—comes around and lets down the upper berths, previously concealed in the wall of the car, pulls together the seats which form the lower berths, produces bedding, curtains, &o, from his cupboards, and in an incredibly short time the whole is converted into a handsome sleeping-room, with much more space in each berth than is usually allowed on board ship. There are separate 1 state-rooms' for friends or families—indeed, some of this description of cars are entirely cut up into separate rooms. The extra cost for a double sleepingberth from San Francisco to New York is only 22d015. The sleeping-cars afford special, exclusive rights to those using them: the other passengers have not the right-of-way through them, as in every other car. The larger part of the improvements really introduced in sleeping and hotel cars, &c, are due to the inventive genius of Mr H. Pullman, of Chicago, and they are being adopted by nearly every railroad in the United States.