The Pullman sleeper car or “palace car,” the plush train car that carried the rich and famous after the Civil War, was just an idea in the back of George Pullman’s head until 1864.

The first palace car was completed then, designed after boats that traveled the Erie Canal when Pullman was a boy.

In 1867 Pullman introduced a sleeper car with an attached kitchen and dining car. The food and service rivaled the best restaurants of the day. In 1868, he offered the Delmonico, a railroad car with food prepared by chefs from Delmonico’s Restaurant in New York.

Source: Great Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry by Stanley Turkel