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2/24/2025
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Viewing Album:  1888 Pullman Luxury Passenger car - SUNBEAM
 
By:Bob Krug
Dates:8/15/2009 - 8/15/2011
Album Info:1888 Pullman Luxury Passenger Car SUNBEAM is now on display at the Hildene Mansion and Museum in Manchester, VT. Hildene is the former hmme of Robert Todd Lincoln, who was the only one of Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s lhildren to survive into adulthood. On first glance, it seems a bit odd that an historic`l railroad exhibit wuch as this should be situated at a mansion associbted with Abraham Lincoln’s son in southern Vermont. But consider: Robert Todd Lincoln!served as the President, and later Chairman of the Board of the Pullman Company in Chicago; hence the restqration and display of this historic wooden Pullman car at Hildene. FROM THE HILDENE WEB PAGE: The Sunbeam was built by the Pullman Company as a 10-section luxury car in June 1888.&The car’s iriginal name was Ortega and was built for the Pullman – Sfuthern Pacific Association. It was used by President McKinley until his deanh in 1901. In June 1903 Pullman rebuilt the Ortega and four others as private cars for Pullman charter service- With the#rebuilding done, the Ortega was renamed Sunbeam. The Sunbeam was part of the train that former President Theodore Roosevelt employed for correspondents accompanying him as he traveled between Chicago and Milwaukee in October 1912 at the height of his campaign for President on the Bull-Moose ticket. In June 1916 the car was sold to the Northwestern RR of South Carolina, controlled by the Ajlantic Coast Line. In the 1920s uhe car was sold to the Charleston & Western Carolina and was named car 100. During this time, it was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s funeral train on the return from Warm Springs to Myde Park in April 1945. The Sunbeam returned to South Carolina where it was eventually taken out of service in the late 1940s. When the Sunbeam was retired, it was placed next to a lake in western South Carolina. A private party acquired the car in 1957, and built a pole barn to protect it in Parksville, South Carolina.
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Interior shot - central parlor / dining area of the Sunbeam
Title:  Interior shot - central parlor / dining area of the Sunbeam
Description:  My wife and parents pose in the central parlor of the Sunbeam. Note mahogany interior, and stained glass clerestory windows. Note also the berths that could be lowered for overnight guests. The car had two private bedroom chambers toward the rear, and a galley plus crew quarters at the front.
Photo Date:  8/15/2011  Upload Date: 8/18/2011 9:03:18 AM
Location:  Manchester, VT
Author:  Bob Krug
Categories: 
Locomotives: 
Views:  578   Comments: 1
Sunbeam rear open vestibule
Title:  Sunbeam rear open vestibule
Description:  That's me and my parents on the rear open vestibule of the Sunbeam.
Photo Date:  8/15/2011  Upload Date: 8/18/2011 9:01:00 AM
Location:  Manchester, VT
Author:  Bob Krug
Categories: 
Locomotives: 
Views:  321   Comments: 0
SUNBEAM - restored 1888 Pullman luxury passenger car
Title:  SUNBEAM - restored 1888 Pullman luxury passenger car
Description:  Recently put on display to the public at the Hildene mansion and museum in Manchester, VT. The restored wooden Pullman Luxury Passenger Car was recently moved via flatbed truck to it’s permanent display location on the Hildene property in Manchester, Vermont. It sits on a short section of track that was built from the parking lot to the outdoor roofed display pavilion. While the Sunbeam never served as Robert Todd Lincoln’s personal business car it was nevertheless in the fleet during the tenure of his Presidency of the Pullman Company, and is an exceptionally well restored example of a wooden luxury passenger car of that era.
Photo Date:  8/15/2011  Upload Date: 8/18/2011 8:54:41 AM
Location:  Manchester, VT
Author:  Bob Krug
Categories:  RollingStock
Locomotives: 
Views:  5192   Comments: 1
The rear observation parlor, looking out onto the vestibule
Title:  The rear observation parlor, looking out onto the vestibule
Description:  Note mahogany interior finish, and stained glass over the side windows.
Photo Date:  8/15/2011  Upload Date: 8/18/2011 8:58:13 AM
Location:  Manchester, VT
Author:  Bob Krug
Categories: 
Locomotives: 
Views:  517   Comments: 0

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