dinner in the diner...

[Anonymous]

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!

[Anonymous]

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!

[Anonymous]

I forgot Southern Africa. Sorry! MCF

[Anonymous]

I forgot Southern Africa. Sorry! MCF

[coalminer3]

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.

[coalminer3]

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.

[Anonymous]

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!

[Anonymous]

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!

[Willy2]

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

[Willy2]

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

[Anonymous]

Apple pie with cheese on the GREAT NORTHERN EMPIRE BUILDER going through
Glacier National Park.



Tom
GOD BLESS THE GREAT NORTHERN

[Anonymous]

Apple pie with cheese on the GREAT NORTHERN EMPIRE BUILDER going through
Glacier National Park.



Tom
GOD BLESS THE GREAT NORTHERN

[Anonymous]

A fantastic salmon steak on the Canadian high above the Frazer river.

[Anonymous]

A fantastic salmon steak on the Canadian high above the Frazer river.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Wdlgln005]

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!

[Wdlgln005]

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!

[gbrewer]

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.

[gbrewer]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Best diner meal I had was breakfast on the UP's CITY OF LOS ANGELES in 1964--French toast, kadota figs, orange juice. Marvelous!

[Anonymous]

Best diner meal I had was breakfast on the UP's CITY OF LOS ANGELES in 1964--French toast, kadota figs, orange juice. Marvelous!

[leighant]

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.

[leighant]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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