Slumbercoach

The Slumbercoach was a streamlined sleeping car, 85 feet long, with 24 single rooms and eight double rooms, that the Budd Company first built in 1956 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad to run on the Denver Zephyr. It was part of the American railways' attempt in the 1950s to win back traffic from airlines, buses and automobiles by giving coach passengers private sleeping space at little more than coach fare, because it slept 40 where a traditional tourist Pullman slept 32. Rooms were arranged in a staggered duplex layout so that every other room was reached by a small flight of steps. Further orders came from the Baltimore and Ohio, Missouri Pacific, Northern Pacific and New York Central, eighteen cars were built by Budd in all, and Amtrak ran them until most were retired in the 1990s, with the last offered for sale in 2001. Several are preserved in museums.