Norton is correct - the only cars lettered PULLMAN would be either sleepers (many different floor/window plans - including sleeper obs.) and parlor cars.
A little history helps understand why passenger cars were painted and lettered the way they were over the years. I'll use the PRR as an example but it applies to other railroads as well. Prior to 1947 the railroads owned head end, coach, and dining cars while Pullman owned and operated (Pullman crews) most sleeping and parlor cars. Ownership was reflected by the name centered on the letter board (an exception being train names on some letter boards). Thus in the case of the pre-war PRR’s trains letter boards had a mix of PULLMAN and PENNSYLVANIA depending on car type/ownership. Railroads with clout could arrange with the Pullman Company to paint sleepers and parlor cars assigned to their trains in the railroad’s colors - thus Pullmans dedicated to PRR routes were generally painted Tuscan red with black roofs.
In 1940 the US DOJ filed an anti-trust suit against the Pullman Company seeking to split Pullman's car building subsidiary (Pullman- Standard Car Manufacturing Company) from its car operations division. Pullman lost the case resulting in a reorganization of the company in which the Pullman Company (car operations) was sold to a consortium of 57 railroads. In 1947 the reorganized Pullman Company sold off most of their sleeper and parlor car fleet to individual railroads. The Pullman Company retained a small pool of heavyweight sleepers available via lease for traffic surges. Most railroads quickly repainted the cars bought from the Pullman Company (lightweight and heavyweight) in their postwar schemes - typically with the railroad name centered on the letter board. If the railroad owned car was crewed and operated by the Pullman Company PULLMAN was displayed in small letters near the doors. Heavyweight cars in Pullman pool service retained PULLMAN on the letter board. Through the 1950’s and early 60’s Pullman pool sleepers could be found with bodies painted two tone gray, Tuscan red, or Pullman green. All Pullman Company leases and operations ceased in 1968, after which the railroads crewed the remaining sleeping cars.
Ed Rappe
