All those great memories of Trains and food… not mine but…
Was poor at age 7 in 1953 when we rode a Train from Tennessee to Los Angeles, must have been in coach, too poor to do the diner, I sure don’t remember eating in one, ATSF or SP or whatever.
I do remember travelling by Greyhound, stopping for food along the way, trying to get food, eat, not miss bus at food stops, I’m sure the train rider’s didn’t like it any better than I did.
My Japan experience was fun, but we didn’t eat on the train, except snacks. The station had Sake soaked squid that had been string/shreaded and dried like a fishy beef jerky, and rice cracker snacks, and little 180 ml Sake glasses, a business associate showed me what to buy, I stocked up on 3 little Sake glasses, and squid for my long trips on the Hitachi built Bullet train, (one with the DC 3 or DC7 nose), or on a 2 hour trip to the VCR factory north of Tokyo in Mito city. The train station was open all hours, had alcohol, food/snacks so was a good source for a foreigner from Los Angeles in Japan riding the trains in Nov’79, April '81 or '83 on my Hitachi VCR or Computer Training stints and staying in Japanese Business hotels, eating Japanese food from local places where no one spoke English, and I had to either find a picture of the food I wanted or find the model food outside or in the Window display, copy the Japanese characters to list the name of the dish, then show them to order it. I usually got what I needed. Those trips were railroad trips of a sort, I took trains and buses alone most of the time, got lost at the big Euwano (SP?) station in Tokyo, wondering how I’d get back to Mito when no one was there to meet me one Saturday from Hitachi Sales Corp. Tokyo headquarters Service section.
Had to see the Japanese characters to ride the bus, catch the right one, and listen for “Sawa Kojo Mei” and “Tokai Kojo Mei” to know when to get off at the VCR factory past the Hitachi Elevator Factory Front. My '83 trip put me i