6. The Only Way to Travel in Style Was in a Private Railway Car – Complete With Servants’ Quarters
One of the challenges that the rich seem to face continually is how to travel in style. And when you’re living in the Gilded Age – always trying to impress your friends, neighbors, and everyone else that you don’t like with how expensive your life is – you just can’t be seen traveling in anything short of magnificent. Enter the private railway car, first brought into use by PT Barnum in 1850 for his traveling circus and adopted by another traveling circus, the wealth of the Gilded Age. They were frequently used by the robber barons, either for leisure or business.
By the turn of the twentieth century, there were as many as 2000 private railway cars in use. They were often outfitted not only with sleeping quarters and a dining area, but also with their observation decks, staterooms, full kitchens, secretary’s area, and even servants’ quarters. Presidents used private railway cars some in their so-called “whistle-stop tours” on the campaign trail; the ever-scrupulous Abraham Lincoln disliked their use so much that he never rode in the one designed for the president (akin to the president refusing to use Air Force One) until his coffin traveled cross-country in it.