Have an especially tasty or poignant memory of a rail related meal? It could be one you actually experienced, or one only dreamed of. My favorite: 1977 Southern Railway, Southern Crescent, DC to New Orleans, broiled brook trout, peas, baked potato, vanilla fudge ice cream brick, coffee. A retro dinner in the Amtrak era.
Dreamed of but never had: A Northern Pacific “Great Big Baked Potato.”
Food is always a great topic… UK, European and Asian fans join in. Enjoy!
I forgot Southern Africa. Sorry! MCF
As Thomas Wolfe (no mean writer about trains himself) said,“Oh, it shall be a snack, a snack-nothing but a snack because, you understand, we are not hungry and it is not well to eat too much before retiring-so we’ll just investigate the icebox as we have done so oft at midnight in America…”
Herewith (in no particular order) are some of my memorable diner meals
Steak dinner on the Broadway (in a twin unit diner)
Breakfast of the L&N’s Pan American (who else out there recalls their red eye gravy?)
Roast beef dinner on the Southern Crescent (back when it was a Southern Ry train).
Seaboard Coast Line always had good fish dinners.
Breakfast on the N&W’s “Pocahontas”
Dinner on the Louisville section of the “George Washington.” This is the section that carried the “Chessie Club.”
Last (but by no means least) fish dinner on the New Haven’s Merchants Limited.
I had dinner on Amtrac on the way to jacksonville,fla. out of grand central. I think Amtrac has gotten a bad rap. Not all meals are good in all places! I think it deffinitly depends on the crews moral at that particular time you ride. Amtrac is always in such a state of flux that it`s not deffinitly bad or deffinitly good. Ride and eat at your own risk!
I ate on Amtrak once too. As I recall it was very good. If I was riding a train I would like a big crab cakes and steak dinner with Mashed potatoes,peas, and a big slice of cheesecake with cherries on top. Maybe you’re wondering why I would want crab cakes, just because I think they’re really good and eating them on a train would be even better!
Willy
Apple pie with cheese on the GREAT NORTHERN EMPIRE BUILDER going through
Glacier National Park.
Tom
GOD BLESS THE GREAT NORTHERN
A fantastic salmon steak on the Canadian high above the Frazer river.
In 1999, my wife and I took the Empire Builder to Montana (our first train trip). I thought the train food would be like airline food. Was I wrong! The steak on that train was as good as any one I’ve had in Milwaukee or Chicago.
We’ve taken several trips since then on the City of New Orleans, The Captiol Limited, and the Southwest Chief. Never had a bad meal. Once, on the Capitol Limited, the dishwasher was out of order, so we had foam plates instead of the china, but otherwise, the food has never been bad.
All you old heads out there may beg to differ, and say pre-Amtrak days were better, may be right, but this is all we have, and I must say I am too young(41!) to remember anything else.
I always say that railroads are the most civilized way to travel. Part of the diner experience is eating with total strangers, and finding out how things are all over the country.
The best meals from any diner involve fresh food from whatever part of the country you are travelling through. Breakfast with Old Railroad French Toast with lots of meat & eggs & oj & coffee. Lunch with hot plate or cold club sandwich. Dinner with meat & 3 sides- potato, vegtable, salad, nice wine.
The best diners have an efficient crew that know how to seat uo to 4 strangers that become good friends. Don’t forget the exprience of going to the lounge car for drinks & snacks. I like the Superliners with their 2 video selections for longer trips. Makes the 500 miles accross Montana seem shorter on EB!
Several memorable come to mind:
Having an Electroburger aboard the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee’s Electorliner.
Eating in the dome diner of the UP City of Portland while quietly crossing Wyoming.
Elegant dining on the Santa Fe’s Texas Chief.
Not so elegant dining on MP’s Texas Eagle.
The old CZ and the later Rio Grande Zephyr.
By contrast, none of my meals aboard Amtrak are worthy of mention.
Never really got the chance to have dinner on a train until a few months ago me and some good freinds took our wives on a dinner train in FT. Myers ,FL. had a good time the food was excellant enjoyed it all.
Best diner meal I had was breakfast on the UP’s CITY OF LOS ANGELES in 1964–French toast, kadota figs, orange juice. Marvelous!
My most memorable dinner in the diner was the first, and it is going to sound like a tall tale. I rode the Amtrak Texas Chief June 1, 1973 from Houston 100 miles out to Brenham and return the same day, the last month the Texas Chief ran with classic red Santa Fe warbonnets before the Amtrak SDP40Fs replaced them. My first ride on an American intercity train. We went back to the diner, Santa Fe #1491, and yes, we would be able to have dinner. The pre-teen girl with me wanted a hamburger but I wanted to enjoy a real dinner in the diner as the Texas farmland scenery rolled past. I pretended I was a past master at writing out the written dinner order. I ordered the broiled lake trout and for dessert, peach cobbler.
The waiter picked up our order and in just a couple of minutes, the train began slowing down. It wasn’t a scheduled stop because we were traveling in from the last stop out of Houston, Brenham. And my map didn’t show a crossing of another railroad. Would they put the Texas Chief in a siding for a freight train? No, there was no siding. We were stopping in a wooded area, with the track well above the ground. Oh, it was a long trestle, and we stopped over a creek. The train sat there two or three minutes, then started rolling again and soon was up to its regular clip of well over a mile a minute. And in a few more minutes, the waiter brought my young lady’s hamburger and my trout dinner.
The fish was flaky and succulent. But I couldn’t help laughing about the circumstances. I recall there had been a lot of rain the night before I was driving to Houston to go on our train riding adventure. Probably the ground was soft and there was a slow order that stopped us on that bridge. It’s only in the old time silent comedies where they hang a fishing line out the dining car window to catch a fish dinner. But it was an interesting coincidence and a memorable dinner in the diner.
I remember Apple Pancakes on the Southern Pacific’s “Sunset Limited”, around 1962 or so. I was only about 6 years old at the time, but the memory of that breakfast stayed with me.
I will always cheri***he fond memories of the Erie Lackawanna dining cars between Scranton - Hoboken/Hoboken - Scranton. I always boarded the train & headed immediately to the dining car. I sat in the dining car for breakfast the ENTIRE trip. Neil Weinberg
Breakfast including eggs benedict on VIA Rail’s The Ocean, going through New Brunswick’s fall colours on the way to Sackville.
Andrew
What I remember…and Amtrak in the Rainbow days was a treat!
Roast Duck on the Amtrak Broadway in the early 70’s
French Toast on the Silver Star in the late 60’s
Last cup of coffee on the Montrealer before arriving in Montreal
Breakfast on the Broadway in the 60’s…I discovered ‘Finger Bowls’
Standing outside of any diner on a station platform!
Breakfast of the Pelican
Breakfast on the Crescent
My only “dining” experience was on the Southern’s Birmingham Special from Baltimore to Roanoke, VA. I can’t remember exactly where but after leaving DC the Southern conductor came through the car asking who wanted dinner. He scribbled down the tally and apparently phoned in the order to the next station. When we stopped they loaded the food on board and started handing out “dinner” which was a box lunch with a really thick ham sandwich, chips, apple and a slice of apple pie along with an RC Cola. It was great!
Roger
and he notes -
In my youth, I accompanied my mother from our home in New Hampshire to Flint, Michigan to visit my grandmother. It was my first trip on a train and it was during the War and space was limited to coach travel. I don’t recall if we couldn’t get in the diner or if my mother was just frugal but we ate our meals from the “Candy Butcher”.
I remember that we traveled from Nashua, NH to Lowell, Mass. to catch the train to Worcestor and then the B&A and NYC to Buffalo and then across Ontario to Detroit where my uncle picked us up for the last leg to Flint.
To a youngster a train ride was an exciting experience and that trip was even more so as it was packed with military personnel. I was adopted by a WAC and a couple of Army men who watched over me when my mother dozed off or went to the lady’s lounge to smoke.
When mealtime came, the “Candy Butcher” would come through the coach with hot and cold drinks and then return with sandwiches and then a final trip with ice cream or candy. He had cigarettes, cigars, playing cards and just about anything a passenger needed. He was employed by one of the food concessions such Saverin or those as were found in city railroad stations. He would get on in the morning with fresh supplies and get off at a prescribed spot and take a train back with fresh supplies for that trip. Further own the line, another “Butcher” would supply the noon meal and another the evening.
I recall having my first egg salad sandwich on that trip and have always been fond of them since. The soldiers kept me supplied with snacks and Coca Cola, something I never got at home.
I’ve eaten many fine meals on trains and before the airlines went to hell, good meals there too but none compare to that first trip and the “Butcher’s” fare.
I’ve got lots of dining experiences…
…horrid lazagna on the Coast Starlight (the only bad meal I’ve ever had on Amtrak).
…riding second class through Australia on the Indian Pacific, and eating some of the worst food I’ve ever had (lesson here–ride first class, where they have a dining car). Other than that, the train trip was wonderful (being a railfan, train riding easily makes up for bad food).
…Amtrak French Toast on the Southwest Chief between Gallup and Grants, New Mexico (I’ve done this routine more times than I can count, but that French Toast of theirs sure is good).
…Chicken L’Orange on the Southwest Chief after departing Los Angeles Union Station. Wdlgln005 is right–the best crews no who to seat with whom, in this case with a New York school teacher; I learned what velocipedestrianarianologist means!!!
…Filet Mignon on the menu, with choice of done-ness. Unfortunately, they were all precooked (my parents were with me, and my father was foced to undergo this–I followed my railroad dining rules listed below).
…Amtrak Danishes in a beautiful lounge car on sea cliffs above rolling surf on Amtrak’s Surfliner on the way to Santa Barbara. Those Danishes were great!!! But now they have changed the company they buy Danishes from, and the new ones aren’t as good.
…Cherry pie on the Monon in 1947 in Indiana (oh…sorry, day dreaming. I wasn’t lucky enough to have that experience: I was born into the Amtrak era).
Daniel’s rules for succesful railroad dining:
1.) Always order the chicken dish (I don’t know why, but I’ve never gone wrong following this).
2.) Just get water (except for hot chocolate–that’s always good).
3.) Ask the waiter’s opinion on the food.
4.) Always order dessert.
5.) Don’t talk about Alco and EMD manifold pressure during dinner, unless everyone with you is a railfan.
6.) Do talk about the good old days of steam locomotives, even if you’re eight years old.
7.) Abs