In Canada, CN and CP and other railroads too owned and operated their own passenger cars of all types including sleepers. In the case of CP, they even built many of their own cars in their Angus shops in Montreal. But in the US, most of the sleeping cars were owned and operated by Pullman and this arrangement was generally in place for cross border trains as well.

Pullman built and assigned their cars in coordination with the railroads schedules. In many situations these cars traversed more than one railroad to reach their final destination. The routing/scheduling of each car was known as a Pullman line.

The normal approach to a Pullman line was for the company to position a sleeper - typically a standard 12-1 - on a siding at a station in the evening. This car would normally be spotted by the railroad in question as part of their arrangement with Pullman for sleeping car services. The car typically would be open to receive passengers by 930 or 10 in the evening regardless of when the train was actually due. The railroad received a fare, usually equivalent to a coach fare and Pullman would receive the surcharge for the sleeping car accommodation - somewhat more for a lower than an upper berth and a discount for buying the full section. Drawing rooms were quite a bit more expensive.

When the train arrived, the car would be cut into the consist, switching being performed by the railroad. This switching was more than just adding a car to the end of the train as the integrity of the order of cars had to be preserved. Normally, head end cars were followed by a crew dorm, coaches and sometimes a diner or lounge often shared between economy and first class passengers. Toward the rear of the train were the first class cars and it was into this group that the Pullman car would be inserted.

Depending on the car's destination, it could be dropped at another station enroute, it could remain with the train to its final destination or it could be transferred to another train operated by another railroad.

There were literally hundreds of Pullman lines during the 20s and 30s - literally every town had Pullman service and any town of any size had one or more dedicated Pullman routes.

In choosing the models most consistent with the services our freelanced model railroads offered, it is helpful to understand the kinds of passenger trains run by real railroads in the heyday of passenger service. These can be roughly divided into a number of typical kinds of trains each with a distinctive consist.

• All first class premium overnight service
• Regular overnight service
• Regular day train service
• Local day train service