CGW Dining Car China

[Anonymous]

I understand from some pretty experienced collectors/experts on the subject that Chicago Great Western dining car china is just about as rare a pieces of railroadiana as there are. At a train show in Iowa about 7 years ago I was told by one collector that he personally knew of someone with a full set of CGW china (the friend was an old CGW employee), that the plates had the Maple Leaf design logo and that he'd be buried with them (i.e. he wasn't interested in selling them).

Has anyone here ever seen genuine CGW china ANYPLACE?

[Anonymous]

Here's one to file under the category of "It Pays to Read Carefully." I looked at your subject and thought, "How in heck did a CGW Dining car end up in China?"

Then I re-read it.

CGW seemed to tend to have shorter routes. I wonder if they ran less meal service because they didn't have the long length-of-haul overnight Trans-Con trains? Less meals = less China. Just a theory. I sure love those photos of 6 or 8 CGW F Units leading a huge string of 40' box cars through the Iowa cornfields.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

CGW china may be almost impossible to find since the heyday of its passenger service was prior to the Great Depression. Its primary routes were Minneapolis-Omaha and Minneapolis-Kansas City, which would be long enough to justify dining car service. After World War II, the bottom fell out of its passenger service and the remaining runs were glorified overnight locals that ran on the strength of their mail contracts.
Its interesting to note that the only lightweight equipment bought by CGW was 3 baggage cars purchased new and 2 secondhand ex-Hiawatha coaches from MILW.

[Anonymous]

That would seem to make sense, since the Maple Leaf logo was the older emblem for the railroad, before the "Lucky Strike" pattern and maybe even the "Corn Belt Route" as well (not sure about the latter but definitely before my favorite "Lucky Strike" design). The Maple Leaf pattern for the china would've been pre-Depression (I have a pass from the CGW with that design on it and I think it's circa 1910).

It's worth keeping an eye out for it in antique shops where RR china is sold. There may be a decent chance a person selling such pieces might not even know how rare it is, since so little knowledge of CGW china exists. I bought a CGW star-shaped flanger sign from a dealor in Cedar Rapids who had no clue what it was and I paid $10 for it - worth a lot more than that I've been told!

[Bergie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dblstack

Here's one to file under the category of "It Pays to Read Carefully." I looked at your subject and thought, "How in heck did a CGW Dining car end up in China?"

Then I re-read it.

I did the exact same thing and had the same reaction. [:)]

Erik

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Bergie

QUOTE: Originally posted by dblstack

Here's one to file under the category of "It Pays to Read Carefully." I looked at your subject and thought, "How in heck did a CGW Dining car end up in China?"

Then I re-read it.

I did the exact same thing and had the same reaction. [:)]

Erik

I too thought that. I was begining to wonder if this was perhaps a topic about old US equipment that's now used in China.