(piano music) - Right now, we are in the Pullman car, Ely, which was a private car built by the Pullman Company down in Calumet, Illinois in 1889.

The original owner of this car was a man by the name of Henry Plant.

He was a industrialist, businessman, an investor, and this car was Henry's private car.

In the years before luxury jets, luxury yachts, businessmen that had railroads had private cars to entertain on and to conduct their office business, as they toured the properties.

When George Pullman founded his Pullman Palace Car Company, most of his employees were immigrants.

A lot of 'em were craftsmen from Europe.

Hence, this car, which was built in 1889, before the Pullman strike of 1894, was detailed with a lot of hand-carved woodwork.

This car reflects their artistic approach and what they were good at.

(piano music) The car would've had a full-time porter.

There would've also been a full-time cook to prepare meals for the car.

The dining room portion of the Ely, could function as a dining room.

It could function as a conference room.

For a meal service, this car was fully equipped.

It had its own pantry, it had its own kitchen, and along with those facilities, it carried a full compliment of china and silverware.

We are now standing in the open section portion of the Ely.

The open section refers to the way the sleeping compartments were made up in this part of the car.

During the daytime, this car would just have regular coach seats, but in the evening, the porter would come into this section and he would remove the little table first, and the lower seats would be folded out into a berth.

And then he would come up to the upper berth section and he would be able to open that and then lower it down.

(berth crank creaks) Any of the guests that were traveling with him would stay in this part of the car.

Right now, we are in the very end of the car, in the little porter section.

There's a small dining table here for somebody that might want a snack in the middle of the day.

And this is also where the porter would spend his time, when he would bunk for the night.

(piano music) And this would've been Henry Plant's private bedroom, whenever he was sleeping over on the car.

This suite is as close to the center of the car as possible, because that's where you had the most comfortable ride.

(orchestral music) Adjacent to the master suite was the passageway to the washroom.

This car had three washrooms in it.

It also had running water and built-in wash basins.

If you wanted to wash your hands, you would pull the sink down, (sink clinking) revealing the sink and also the levers to get your hot and cold running water.

But there's not a drain in the bottom of the basin, so when you were done washing your hands, to empty the sink, you would tilt it back up and it would drain into a pipe in the cabinet, down to the track below.

In the days before environmentally conscious people, the commode just worked on the dry-hopper principle, and after using the commode, when you pull the handle, it would just drain down through a pipe and land on the tracks below.

(orchestral music) Well, what's special is it's a luxury car.

This was a car that catered to your own personal use and your own personal needs.

(orchestral music ending)