Hello everyone! Welcome to the Diner for February, 2024! This month we are going to hook the Diner up to famous passenger trains. We will get to see a lot of North America!
So gang, choose your favourite ‘named’ train(s) and tell us a bit about them.
Cheers!!
Dave
There have been an incredible number of named trains. If you need help choosing one, here is Wikipedia’s list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_named_passenger_trains_of_the_United_States_(A–B)
That list only covers trains starting with A or B, but you can see the rest of the alphabetical listings by clicking on the capital letters just down from the top of the page.
Cheers!!
Dave
I’ll kick things off by choosing ‘The Canadian’. Here is some history:
Thanks for moving the Diner this month, Dave! We get an extra day in this years February, yipee!
I was fortunate enough to have enjoyed the top-notch appointments of both The Canadian and the CN’s Super Continental back in the early '70s.
One train I never had the fortune to ride was the 20th Century Limited. It was discontinued in 1967 and Cleveland, where I grew up, was not an ‘official’ passenger stop for the Century.
NYC_Century_GCT by Edmund, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
Good morning!
Ridge Farm IL, former Cloverleaf (NKP/N&W)
Hi Everyone,
Dave: thank you for moving the diner. You pack a wealth of information on one name train. Good job.
One of the more memorable train trips we ever took was to ride Canadian VIA from Windsor, OT to Moncton, NB. There were like 17 of us traveling together. On the return part of the trip we crossed the Quebec bridge. Massive steel beams and columns in that one. Fun trip.
The Panama Limited is escaping these snow-covered parts. By tomorrow the train will be in Sunny New Orleans:
Panama_4027 by Edmund, on Flickr
Panama_4036 by Edmund, on Flickr
https://www.american-rails.com/panama.html
Cheers, Ed
Good afternoon Diners. A large coffee please, Flo.
A hectic night last night. Older granddaughter broke her finger playing basketball. A few hours in hospital being attended to also meant I had to get and look after grandson.
Anyway our daughter and granddaughter came to our house to collect grandson. It was just after midnight when they arrived. They had a 40 mile journey home to North Tynedale.
Elizabethan Express
Vintage railway film - Elizabethan express - 1954 (youtube.com)
Good morning, diners. I’ll have my usual breakfast.
In the 1950s, my grandfather in Tacoma, Washington, was sick and in the hospital. My mother and I rode the Union Pacific ‘City of Portland’ to Tacoma.
We spent two days and two nights on the train. One regret is that my mother and I took no pictures on the train.
That trip really jump-started my love for trains. I loved flushing the toilet and seeing the ties and track going by under the train. I had never seen a ‘finger bowl’ in the dining car before. I also loved to stand on the shifting floor between cars. I spent the majority of both days sitting in the dome.
It was a great trip.
I hope everyone has a great day.
Howdy diners. Janie, a chocolate malt please.
Was put behind the 8 ball first thing this morning. I was backing out of the garage to head to work when I noticed the dome light on in my daughter’s car. Uh oh. Sure enough, dead battery. I was going to leave it and just make her walk to school (we live really close), but she also has to work tonight and nobody else may make it home before she has to leave. So, I was late for work jump starting and running her car long enough to get enough charge back in the battery for her. That set up the rest of the morning to feel like a race. At least it’s the last day of the work week for me.
I’m looking forward to reading all the info on named trains this month. That’s something I wish I had been able to experience, but alas, born too late. (At least for a decent train in the U.S.)
Good Afternoon,
Ed, glad to hear your treatments are going ok.
I have only been on the Super Continental. Once when I was 12 I went out to BC with ny Grandmother to visit relatives on her side. We went to Vernon on the way out which meant our car was dropped at Salmon Arm and then picked up by the train down the Okanagan Valley. Came back from Vancouver. I had an upper berth. That was in 1960. Last time was spring 1971 from Winnipeg to Toronto. I went down to pick up a new car. What I saved in freight paid for the trip. I remember great food in the dining car.
I did get the Consolidation out of the engine house. I think its wheels need a cleaning. I uae a paper towel soaked in alcohol that works well for me. It is pulling a work train with a work caboose I got for Christmas 1959.
Time for tea
CN Charlie
Thanks, Charlie! [Y]
When I rode the Super Continental from Torinto to Winnipeg they were still running the former Milwaukee Super Domes on the train.
I doubt this would qualify as a fancy name train. Mixed train, maybe?
CSX Q406 GUILFORD AVE 2-25-93 by Don Kalkman, on Flickr
My very first ride on a named passenger train was aboard the ERIE’s Lake Cities from Cleveland to Youngstown (on a connecting train) then Youngstown to Hoboken, N.J. back in 1966.
EL_Last-Lake Cities-1 by Edmund, on Flickr
Not quite as fancy as the Phoebe Snow but at least there was a full diner.
Lackawanna_Tavern by Edmund, on Flickr
E-L_coach setout-Huntington-IN by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Most of my childhood I travelled on buses; even the long haul (in those days) from Leeds to Newcastle.
One time, for some unknown reason to me I was taken by train, Leeds City to Newcastle. Not just a train, but a named one; NORTH BRITON nameboard at the front. At the time I was not really interested in railways, so the occassion was lost on me. Just the memory of the nameboard.
The North Briton ran from Leeds City to Glasgow Queen Street, calling at York, Darlington, Newcastle, Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street.
David
Good morning, everyone. Just coffee this morning – I’m heading out the door.
Nothing like waking up and walking to diner on a moving train! It’s strange, but everyone in the diner is dressed like they’re going to church.
Have a great day, everyone.
In the 1950s that was the way to dress and dine. Even at home as a young boy wearing a tie at mealtimes. Those were the days
David
Hi Everyone,
Back in the 50s and 60s, one would always dress up to travel. I’m not old enough to remember what the societal rationale was, but I’m sure it would’ve had something to do with respect. Anyway, that’s how it was done then.
Thinking about it, I’ve ridden several UP passenger trains from early youth to adulthood. I don’t remember any name trains except the Amtrak Southwest Chief, which was originally the ATSF, from Chicago’s Union Station to Topeka, KS. My Dad had said that it was pretty much a straight shot from Chicago to Kansas City. That train would’ve been two full days from Chicago to LA.
Good morning from the sunny West Coast where it is supposed to be nice for the next week at least. So close to T-shirt weather on my scoot with the mutt.
Three trips into Vancouver in three days for us and every time we get home from that rat race of traffic and hoards of people both my wife and I climb out of the car and just take in the silence.[(-D]
Had a very frustrating couple of days on the “Executor” front. It’s as if a person comes to you and says, “My hand keeps getting burned”, and you say to them, “Well don’t stick your hand in the fire and it won’t get burned”, and then they just look at you like you are speaking a foreign language.[:|] Yesterday I had to tell a lady you and your husband had no Will in place, Here is the name of a good Lawyer. Her husband died and she has no access to his retirement funds. It will get straightened out and she will have to plead with the tax man to not take a huge chunk in taxes as she is not named as the Beneficiary. The car and boat were in his name as well as some other things. My guess is six figures to clean it up. Stupid is as stupid does.
When I was two, in April 1959 we climbed aboard The Canadian in Winnipeg for our move to the West Coast. My sister was able to tell me the exact date we hopped aboard and there are a couple of people on some Canadian Pacific FB groups that are trying to hunt down the exact consist of the train I was on so I can re-create it.
Just how I remember the trip. Yep, even at age two I do remember snippets.
I hear the recycling truck coming. I’ll mosey out for a chat with the driver, it’s what we retired guys do, don’t ya know.[(-D]
All the best to all.
Good afternoon diners. Zoe, a big rice krispie treat and a glass of chocolate milk please.
That is very neat! I wish you luck with it.
I got an email this morning that made me sad. It was from Model Train Stuff asking me to rate/review some of the things I bought just before Christmas. I know there are other shops and there are plenty of folks who are not sad to see them go (I’ve read the thread about them…some of it a bit harsh), but they were my go to source. I actually liked how their website was laid out and could find what I wanted easily. I still don’t understand how right up to the end (other than what appeared to be a Christmas sale/moving sale) once they realized they were going to close up, why didn’t they mark down everything they had and try to get some liquidity from their inventory? I think they still had a fair amount of stuff in stock. I doubt manufacturers would take back what they hadn’t sold. Oh well.
Hope everyone with difficulties on the health front are doing okay. I’ll back in later.
