Randall Gustafson’s story in the June issue of Trains about dining on the Santa Fe Super Chief and then years later encountering a former Super Chief waiter on the Amtrak Lake Shore Limited reminds several of us ‘older timers’ of the way it was.
As a thiry five year Santa Fe employee I enjoyed many fine meals in their dining cars, but not in the Turquoise Room. I also traveled on the B & O Capital Limited, the UP’s Portland Rose, the California Zephyr and the IC’s City of New Orleans where I was also impressed with both the food and the service. Perhaps other Trains readers will wish to share impressions of ‘the way it was’.
Many B&O meals. Seafood was always great on the Baltimore-based diners. I almost always got the baked apple for dessert.
Riding north from Evansville, Indiana on the C&EI (the Hummingbird, which had come up from the south on the L&N) I ordered breakfast on an L&N diner. When it was served, I saw a blob of white stuff on my plate and asked the waiter what it was. “Them’s grits!” he replied, obviously shocked that this northern boy didn’t know. Then he graciously showed me how to load them up with butter and a little salt & pepper. I can’t say I fell in love with grits, but my introduction to them was a pleasure.
A wonderful dinner on PRR’s General. I think I had roast beef. It was marred by the dessert, which was under-ripe cantaloupe. I didn’t complain.
Then as now, the opportunity to dine with someone completely new and different is a special experience that too many Americans never get to have.
Believe it or not a great breakfast on Penn central # 27 I still remember the great trout dinner on the empire builder and club sandwiches in the builders lounge car. Nothing better than crawling out of your berth and heading to the dinner for breakfast. Always neat to fill out menu card.
Also a great hand made bloody Mary on the westbound Canadian, facing rear looking out the back window of one of the park car, dome sleeper lounge obs, good times for sure.
I also had good meals [breakfasts and dinners] on the General. Also good meals on the Silver Meteor and East Coast Champion wehen I rode them to/from NYC or Philly to/from FL. The rest of the Pennsy fleet that I rode ranged from barely adequate to “forget it”. But I never did ride the Broadway as most of my travel was by coach.
Back in the days of my employment by Bolt Beranekand Newman, as an architectural acoustical consultant, I rode the Panama Limited a number of times, both directions Chi-NO, and also to and from Jackson and from Memphis. To be able to pay the ten bucks for The Kings Dinner, I did some creative expense account juggling, usually claiming taxi expenses when I had actually used public transit. Today, that is a no-no at the Yeshiva where I stury. (And of course,so would be the non-Kosher Kings Dinner.)
It was a very rare trip of the many I took when the dining car experience was not one of the high points if not the high point of the trip. Pre-Amtrak dining car food was just great. Even Penn Central managed to do just great on the Broadway. But let us not discuss what happened when diners were removed and replaced by coach cafe cars.
Cafe coaches and snack bars were probably more in tune with the market being served than a full-service dining car, especially among coach passengers. George W. Hilton once observed, based on his own experiences, that a fair number of coach passengers managed to obtain sustenance without having to pay dining car prices.
If memory serves me correctly, the CNW converted several full diners into cafe coaches and cafe lounge cars. Apparently it made more sense for the passengers needs (most trains runs were under 410 miles) and was obviously cheaper to operate.
Lets not forget that the D&RGW operated a full service Diner into the 1980’s on the Rio Grande Zephyr…the menu item I remember most on that line was the Rocky Mountain Rainbow Trout.
Mine was the NYNH&H, which, according to some sources, was making money on it’s food service up until its demise. While I was post “best times” on the NH, I did ride many, many times from Back Bay Station to Stamford, CT and enjoyed baked Boston Schrod and baked beans in the diner, served on china with silver coffee pot, etc. According to the receipe book I have from the NH, they had 70 different salads possible, all made aboard. The best BLT Club I had was on a PRR grill car out of WDC heading up to Stamford. The discovery of grits was similiar to mine on a trip to Alabama but, I fell in love with them and still enjoy them on my frequent trips to Chicago/Syracuse aboard the Lake Shore Limited…one of the few places in the north where grits are standard breakfast fare.
The meals stayed inventive and interesting into the early years of Amtrak. Personally, when pancakes were on the menu in the diner of PC Train #48 I was quite happy. The cheeseburger on the Amtrak #31 served with fresh brewed ice tea was also a favorite. In short there were some nice experiences to be had.
I had two really pleasant experiences in the early years of Amtrak–eating on the Super Chief when going from Chicago to Albuquerque in 1973–the steward was an old hand who knew what he had to do, what he should not do–and what he could do. When we (my wife, her three young children, and I) ate dinner, the steward offered to take out picture. The food was excellent. Returning, mealtime was not as pleasant, for the steward was apparently a new hire and knew only what he had to do and what he must not do.
Another pleasant dining experience came when I rode the Sunset Limited from New Orleans to Los Angeles in 1980; the waiter was an old hand who knew his stuff, and the food was good.
I well remember the excellent service the UP provided when I rode from Portland to Chicago in April of 1971; both diners provided excellent food and service (but I was unable to have my first evening’s dinner companion the second evening–she detrained in Boise, but I made up for that the following year when we had two breakfasts, three lunches, and two dinners together, with the last two meals being eaten on the Rio Grande Zephyr, which presented excellent food and service).
I enjoyed eating in N&W diners on the Pelican; after I ate one lunch, the waiter brought me
I had a good dining experience on Amtrak’s montrealer, maybe in the late 90’s. A good dinner coming out of DC, a hot breakfast just rolling Thur Vermont on a winters day.
I’ll never forget my first meal in a dining car. It was in 1942 in a CofG diner on the Southland highballing from Macon to Atlanta.
Fresh cut flowers adorned the table, the dishes were real china and the silverware was heavyweight sterling emblazoned with CofG on each handle. Fresh squeezed orange juice was followed by a generous slice of country ham surrounded by red eye gravy with two fried eggs on top. Grits topped with a big dollop of butter were served in a side dish. A corn meal muffin was served in its open top cast iron baking dish which was shaped like an ear of corn. I marveled how the waiters balanced their serving trays and delighted in glimpsing the big Mountain type engine as it rounded the many curves. Over the ensuing years I’ve had many more elaborate meals but this one remains my fondest memory.
An experience I remember was in the early 50’s while in highschool, I took a day trip from Cincinnati Toledo going via the NYC & returning on B&O’s Cincinnatian. Steam both ways. I had a more educated friend with me and ate dinner in the Observation/Lounge/Dining car on the southbound trip. After the meal the waiter brought us a small silver bowl with warm water in it and napkins. Fortunatly, my friend knew what a finger bowl was because I didn’t. Wish I could remember what we ate.
In 1968, I took my family (Wife and 7 yr old son and 3 yr old daughter on the CZ to California. As noted by another the diner, food, and service was something the three railroads could be proud of.On the way back, we took the Cascade from Oakland to Seattle, and then the Empire Builder back to Chicago. My son got nauseous from the fumes in the Cascade tunnel and I had to take him to our room. After he got over it he was humgry and so we went to the Ranch car where he had a BLT. He claimed it was the best he ever had.
In the early seventies, when the Southern’s 4501 ran a trip from Chattanoga to Huntsville, He & I rode the Greyhound to Chattanoga, then on to New Orleans after the 4501 trip. Coming back to Chicago we rode Amtraks’ City of New Orleans which consisted of heritage Budd equipment but had three or four former Santa Fe El Capitan highlevel coaches on the end. The first was a transition car. These cars were to be used North of Memphis. After some pleading, the conductor agreed to let us ride in them. In front of the ElCap cars was the diner.In the morning. we came down for breakfast of the best French Toast. Exta thick and served just right.
Later, solo I took a trip on the Rio Grande’s Zepher and I had the same steward, that we had had. His picture is in the book PORTRAIT OF A SILVER LADY. I think his name was Lundgren. And yes, I had the trout and it was excellent. After WWII, the PRR bought a large fleet of new equipment and among them were m
I also agree about the Rocky Mountain Trout on the CZ and RGZ. Ordered it whenevery I could, about 30 times in total. I still regard the Denver - StLakeC trip as heaven on earth. Even with Amtrak. RGZ menue scans are on the hard drive of the computer I am currently using. With the right background color.