Does anyone know if there are any surviving Pullman Records from the 1880s, and where or who would hold these documents?

The Smithsonian (Archives Center, Museum of American History) has the Pullman order books. The Newberry (Chicago) has business records.

Eric Neubauer has a CD available eaneubauer(insert at symbol)ericsrailroadcarhistory.com

Early Pullman Car Freight and Passenger Car Production (2010) is a detailed, 370 plus page listing of over 4,300 Pullman freight and passenger car orders from the 1860s until the end of 1911. A great amount of detail was added to the freight car information contained in Pullman-Standard Freight Car Production Including Predecessors. The passenger information is entirely new and includes cars built for Pullman service as well as those purchased by railroads and rapid transit lines. An excellent aid in constructing early rosters.

Matt,
Another source of Pullman information and some photos, I believe, is the Pullman Plans Library at the Illinois Railway Museum.

See IRM.org for more information. They also have some freight car production records from the Standard Car Company.

Ted Miles, IRM Member

I depends a lot on which type of records you're looking for.

The records for Pullman are all over the place, and even by era or department are not in one location.

The Pullman Library @ IRM has the largest collection fo documents, Drawings and photos. Items do get back into the 1880s....but if you are looking for company records, that's quite another thing.

The Newberry Library in Chicago has the Operating Dept./Company records and some drawings. You can find their Pullman Guide on line.

The Smithsonian has a collection that is, for the most part, unobtainium - no one there seems to know how to access anything, or how to process. They also have an online guide.

The CSRM has a large collection - made more substantial by including Ralph Barger's collection. That may also have data from the era.

The bulk of the early stuff was at Princeton - where the successor company to Pullman was HQed for a little while. It was donated to the Library in Princeton. Another lode of unobtainium, as it's difficult to get information as to what they might have, let alone how to get at it.

There are other collections at Lincoln Library in Springfield, Lake Forest College, SMU, CRM (Pullman had a home in Golden), and various much smaller areas.

But - and I can't overemphasize this - you would be best served by requesting information while including the purpose, the "slice" you really want, and so forth - saying "Pullman Information - of *ANY* era is an awfully large net. Not being critical here, trying to be helpful.