Yea, haha, actually since I chased the train for about 10 miles, every time he came up on me he would give a different blow of the horn
. Other cool thing was since I knew the conductor, whenever he rolled past me, we would have a quick 10 second conversation. The train was going slow enough (sub 20MPH) I could hear him and visa versa.From smitty195's post on TO on the Edward Ullman: " Your very first shot shows a picture of a sleeping car I've been wondering about for a longgggg time! The "Edward Ulman" is sleeping car number 32003. It was a complete nightmare of a trip when I was in that car back in 1991 or 1992. It was on the Desert Wind, and that car had nothing but mechanical problems the whole way. The brakes finally locked up and fried to a crisp..." Well, I guess she is doing better now!
The UP's major headaches seem to be in the major terminal areas. Namely Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and West Colton. Double tracking is well under way but unless you move 1,000 boxcars out of a 500 car capacity yard twice a day you will have trains hogged out in sidings and the main line for miles in each direction. Unfortunately, I've been there and done that both as a passenger and engineer.
I'm guessing that the car was named after this Edward Ullman, a geographer. But maybe there is another Edward that I don't know about.
Actually all of the Superliner I sleepers were given names, but only two where ever actually painted onto the car. They are the "Edward Ullman" car #32003 and the "George Pullman" car #32009. All Superliner II sleepers, but for the six Deluxe sleepers, were named after the 50 States. The six Deluxe sleepers used exclusively on the Auto Train, which have only bedrooms on the upper level no roomettes, are named Palm Bay; Palm Beach; W. Graham Claytor, Jr.; A. Phillip Randolph; Palm Harbor; Palm Springs. Unfortunately the Palm Beach was so badly damaged in the Auto Train wreck back in 2002, that it still remains out of service and will most likely be scrapped.
