Monarch Parlor-Sleeping Car Company.

Gustave Leve's 1876 patent for sleeping cars was followed by the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway (later North Shore Railway) for several cars built, one at its own shops in 1880-81. Leve's patent was also used by the Monarch and Mann sleeping car companies. (Canadian Illustrated News, February 19, 1881).

The genesis of the Monarch Company appears to be a patent (No 181,857) issued September 5, 1876, to Gustave Leve of New York. The design's main objective was to provide a day-night car with parlor seats. The revolving chairs were collapsible, and the bedding was stored in narrow closets along the sides of the car. Curtains formed berth enclosures, as in the ordinary American sleeper. The mechanism and cabinetry to accomplish this transformation was complex and probably not worth the trouble or expense.

Leve's design apparently lay dormant for four or five years; then in 1881 the Canadian Illustrated News described some cars of his design on the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway. The cars were built in the railway's own shops, with certain improvements added by the road's mechanical superintendent. (an engraving accompanying the article was reproduced on page 231 The American Railroad Passenger Car).

In 1883 the Gilbert Car Works constructed two cars using Leve's patent for export to Australia. Early in the year four more cars were in service on the Occidental Railway of Canada and the Florida Transit. Leve had meanwhile acquired a partner named Alden and was engaged in the excursion business, but little information can be found on the nature of this enterprise, Reports were circulated in July 1885 that the Monarch Parlor-Sleeping Car Company had been formed in New York to exploit Leve's patented car. A.F. Higgs, owner of several refrigerator lines, was to head the 5-million-dollar organization. The cars would be named after ancient rulers, and soon sleeping cars called ZENOBIA, CLEOPATRA, and RHODOPE were running under Monarch's letter board. Thirteen cars were in service by the following spring. They were 75 feet long, with 66 foot bodies, and offered 24 rotating parlor seats by day and 12 double-berth sections by night. The 35 ton cars were carried on eight or twelve wheels and cost $22,000 each.

In the summer of 1886 the Gilbert Car Works produced an extraordinary parlor observation car for Monarch named YMIR. It offered service from New York City to the White Mountains via the Connecticut River Railroad and featured an open side isle for viewing the scenery. (In keeping with its unusual floor plan, the car was decorated in an original scheme that is described in chapter 4)

In addition to its Canadian, New England, and Florida contracts, Monarch operated cars for a time between Baltimore and Pittsburg, Indianapolis and Evansville, and Fort Smith and New Orleans. Like Mann, it had entered the field too late; and like Mann and Woodruff, its operations were too scattered and marginal to pay. The company appears to have struggled on until 1893 or 1894 and was said to have built a total of thirty cars. The details of its disposition have not been uncovered, but it does not appear to have been taken over by Pullman. It is possible that the Gilbert Car Company had a large interest in the concern, after the fashion of the Wilmington shops' involvements with Mann and Woodruff. Since Gilbert is known to have built all but one or two of Monarch's cars, Gilbert's unexpected and complete failure in 1893 may explain Monarch's disappearance.

Reference: "The American Railroad Passenger Car pg 230,231 and 232."