Well, consider for a moment that Prohibition was a successful Constitutional amendment- for it to pass, there had to be popular support, not only in Congress, but in state legislatures as well.
I would suspect that railroads reacted the same way to Prohibition that they react to smoking bans now. Alcohol was seen as the cause of a lot of bad things- crime, divorce, a breakdown in "traditional family values"- and an easy target for the righteous. So the idea of Carrie Nation sitting right behind you in the diner is probably not as wild as you think. Try lighting up on an aircraft, or a train, or even a bus, and you will get a reaction. I suspect that you would have gotten the same reaction on a train if you were obnoxiously, publicly, drunk.
I am not naive- but to suspect that conductors routinely provided booze to even the most wealthy passengers traveling to Chicago from Hollywood is sort of like implying AMTRAK conductors would provide cocaine to Robert Downey Jr. or Dennis Hopper. I would suspect that the passengers carried their own booze, and so long as they were not obnoxious, trainmen looked the other way.
I vaguely remember reading that passengers (employees?) on the D7H returning from Canada would hang booze outside the car as the train went through customs. I guess the customs agents only looked on one side.
Remeber when several state agencies, Oklahoma for one, raided Amtrak trains for not abiding by state liquor laws in the early 1970's?
As an aside, when the private railroads still had their own passenger service, their were rumors in Jacksonville that ladies of the evening would buy a sleeping compartment, especially between Miami and Chicago, and turn several tricks a trip.
True or not? I don't know but it does make for an interesting story.
Mel Hazen; Jax, FL
Mel Hazen; Jax, FL Ride Amtrak. It's the only way to fly!!!
I'm not so sure it wasn't common, although not in such a public setting as a dining car.
Remember the poker scene in the movie "The Sting"? The game is being conducted with the active assistance of the railroad conductor. That is Hollywood, sure, but I'd be willing to bet it was not uncommon on the premium trains. Something similiar certainly was common on the North Atlantic steamships of the era.
How about the private cars of the era? Again, I'd venture to say that neither those belonging to the railroad nor those of private individuals were dry.
Since prohibition was a bit before my time, this is pure speculation on my part:
I seriously doubt that railroad management would have condoned risky practices that might have given the 'law enforcers' an excuse to trash dining cars in an effort to stamp out 'demon rum (with news cameramen prominently present.)
If an individual employee tried what you suggested, he would have become an ex-employee as soon as the conductor, brakeman or chief steward smelled the first hint of alcohol.
Remember, a railroad dining car was not a speakeasy. Mrs Grundy and Carrie Nation (or their spiritual brethren) might easily have been at the next table to Louie the Lush, ears cocked to detect the first sound of any euphemism for firewater and noses tilted to detect any trace of ethanol in the air. Then as now, corporations shied away from anything that might generate adverse publicity - and the prohibition supporters would not have hesitated for a heartbeat to generate plenty on even the scantiest evidence.
Chuck
During dinner yesterday evening at a nice restaurant, two older couples at an adjacent table were discussing the National Prohibition / Volstead Era in the United States, 1919 to 1933. Their conversation got me to thinking ...
... I wonder, just wonder, to what extent did dining car stewards - with the "official disapproval" of management (wink, wink) - manage to serve "strong waters" during that period of national madness. It would seem to me that a New York Central dining car service employee, running through Ontario, Canada, could have easily picked up a few bottles on a regular basis and served their contents discretely to certain favored clientel at much to his personal profit. Or a Chief steward in Los Angeles could easily have hopped a San Diegan while on layover, picked up some gin and rye whiskey in Tijuana, and kept the Hollywood crowd happy as they traveled between La-la-land and Chicago. The same activity might apply to stewards working the Los Angeles & Salt Lake, or Espee's Coast Line, San Joaquin Valley, and Sunset Route varnish.
If that great railroad book author Lucius Beebe were still alive - a man whose favorite sport was jousting with the forces of spiritus frumenti - now he might have an answer to this question. Pray tell, might anyone else reading this space have an answer as well?
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