But even during these years of untiring activity the thought of a radical improvement in railway car construction was constantly working in the brain of the young contractor, and in 1858 he determined to give his ideas the practical test. The story of this first application of these revolutionizing ideas to the railroad coaches then in use is best told in the words of Leonard Seibert, who was at that time an employee on the Chicago & Alton Railroad. In 1858 Mr. Pullman came to Bloomington and engaged me to do the work of remodelling two Chicago & Alton coaches into the first Pullman sleeping-cars. The contract was that Mr. Pullman should make all necessary changes inside of the cars. After looking over the entire passenger car equipment of the road, which at that time constituted about a dozen cars, we selected Coaches Nos. 9 and 19. They were forty-four feet long, had flat roofs like box cars, single sash windows, of which there were fourteen on a side, the glass in each sash being only a little over one foot square. The roof was only a trifle over six feet from the floor of the car. Into this car we got ten sleeping-car sections, besides a linen locker and two washrooms--one at each end. The wood used in the interior finish was cherry. Mr. Pullman was anxious to get hickory, to stand the hard usage which it was supposed the cars would receive. I worked part of the summer of 1858, employing an assistant or two, and the cars went into service in the fall of 1858. There were no blue-prints or plans made for the remodelling of these first two sleeping-cars, and Mr. Pullman and I worked out the details and measurements as we came to them. The two cars cost Mr. Pullman not more than $2,000, or $1,000 each. They were upholstered in plush, lighted by oil lamps, heated with box stoves, and mounted on four-wheel trucks with iron wheels. There was no porter in those days; the brakeman made up the beds. In the construction of these first sleeping cars Mr. Pullman introduced his invention of upper berth construction by means of which the upper berth might be closed in the day time and also serve as a receptacle for bedding. Other improvements and devices were worked out and tested, and from these first experiments were drawn the detailed plans from which the first cars entirely constructed by him were made. Although without technical training himself, Mr. Pullman was quick to recognize the necessity of skilled assistance to express and improve his embryonic ideas. To this end he soon established a small workshop, and employing a number of skilled mechanics set himself to the mastery of the problems which confronted him. Another interesting personal reminiscence of the first days of the Pullman car is afforded by J. L. Barnes, who was in charge of the first car run from Bloomington to Chicago over the Chicago & Alton.