Dining Car Service

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to find out how many railroads had dining car service just before the Amtrak takeover in 1971. Also how many diners were operating on each railroad at the time of the takeover. I know there was around 400 passenger trains operating in may 71 before the takeover. A lot of trains had dropped dining car service by 1971. Maybe there is a website that gives historical passenger car rolling stock inventory by railroad. Thanks lonestar

[Anonymous]

Official Railway Guides from the past would be a good source of information and a way to get started.

[Anonymous]

The Kalmbach book "Journey to Amtrak" lists 261 "train pairs" operating in intercity service just before the Amtrak takeover on May 1, 1971. There is a web site devoted to dome cars, but I'm not aware of one with wider coverage of passenger cars of that era.

An Official Guide from the spring on 1971 would list equipment for each scheduled train, but those entries varied from one road to another, and weren't always very discriptive or accurate. The listing "dining service" often appeared, without an indication of car type.

[Anonymous]

For openers, here's what I remember out of Chicago in April of '71.

The one remaining Hiawatha had a cafeteria diner.
The City of Everywhere
The Capitol had a diner-lounge, ex C&O stainless steel obs car (but not always run on the hind end.)
The Panama
The City of New Orleans
The City of Miami
The Governor's Special on the IC to Springfield had snack service.
The Flambeau and Peninsula 400 remnants on the CNW had "Sip and Snack" cars.
The Denver Zephyr
The Empire Builder
The North Coast
The Twin Zephyrs had snack service.
The Abe Lincoln and the Limited on the GM&O.
The James Whitcomb Riley (diner-lounge)
The Lake Shore
The Broadway
The South Wind
Both the Peoria and Quad Cities Rockets had a "Club-Diner"
The Wabash remnant had a coffee shop
The Super Chief, The El Capitan, and the Texas Chief
The Grand Canyon (had a lunch counter diner)
Not sure but the C&EI "Danville Flyer" may still have had the Harvest Inn diner lounge. But I'm sure will get a corrective post on this.
The Georgian-Hummingbird

(The above post may contain errors or omissions. This is based purely on the memory of a 54 year old. Do not write any articles, themes, or books based soley on its contents. Not responsible for errors in printing, delays, or failure to make connections. Regularly assigned posts are air conditioned.)
This post has been corrected to Nov 8, 04 account info I remembered late last night and the post that follows this one.
Mitch

[Anonymous]

Adding to Mitch's excellent laundry list:

The City of Everywhere still had a diner
CZ remnant on DRGW had a diner
Daylights had some excuse for "food" service, and I think the Cascade did, too
At least 1 San Diegan had a lounge, I think
remaining Southern trains (somebody enhance and/or correct this) had some sort of food on board
NY-Florida trains
Gulf Wind
Congo and Metroliners

I think ATSF 23/24 (what was left of the Grand Canyon) had some sort of food service for part of the run, in addition to 1 or more meal stops (ATSF left 23/24 on for pass and reduced fare riders after the big collapse of 1968)--anybody have better info?

Mitch's other new thread (crappiest pre-Amtrak trains) may be of interest to some of you:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24117


Equipment subject to change without notice. Regularly assigned cars are air-conditioned. Seat reservation charge applies. Extra fine-extra fast-extra fare.

Yeah, riiiiiiiiiight.

[passengerfan]

I can think of the SAN FRANCISCO CHIEF, FLORIDA SPECIAL, SILVER METEOR, SILVER STAR, SUNSET LIMITED, UP 457-458, GN INTERNATIONALS, NP Seattle - Portland pool train, SAN DIEGANS, GOLDEN GATE, WESTERN STAR, MAINSTREETER, WEST COAST CHAMPION ,EAST COAST CHAMPION, BROADWAY LTD, and North of the border CANADIAN, SUPER CONTINENTAL, OCEAN, SCOTIAN, CHALEUR, ATLANTIC LIMITED, Churchill- Winnipeg trains, and SKEENA.