Nostalgia & History > Midweek Menu - California Zephyr

The California Zephyr was a joint effort of the Western Pacific, Rio Grande, and the Burlington.  With the creation of the CZ, it represented the only dining car operations on the WP, and by the end it was the only one left on the Rio Grande.  Interestingly, the Burlington's dining car department was the "lead" organization, responsible for the purchase of the china, linens, silverware, and other hard goods.  While the silver and linens were marked for the CZ, the Burlington's streamliner era standard "Violets and Daisies" china was the standard used on all three railroads.

Image 1: Dinner menu from October of 1969.
Image 2: Inside of that menu.  The Rocky Mountain Trout ws the signature dish on the CZ and remined so on the Rio Grande Zephyr until the end.
Image 3: Insert for the Early Bird special offered at the first seating for dinner.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/17 05:41 by njmidland.

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Some images inside the CZ diner:
Photo 1: Late 1950's - You can make out the "Violets and Daisies" china on the table.
Photo 2: The diner Silver Plate near the end at a lunch service.
Photo 3: From a CZ publicity photo in 1964.

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Great Post !

I was able to make a couple of trips on the "real" CZ in the '60's

I made one trip in a roomette from Sacramento to Chicago in 1969.  Given my limited college-student funds, I probably had the turkey for my dinner entree.

Great photos and menus from one of the world's classic trains! Seeing all of this brings to mind a story that many of you may find of interest. 

When Amtrak and the Denver & Rio Grande Western finally reached agreement on our (Amtrak) running our "San Francisco Zephyr" thru the Rockies and not around them in early 1983, several interesting circumstances resulted from this. First, the Amtrak "SFZ" would be renamed "California Zephyr" since most of the route would now be the same as the original vista-dome "CZ." The late Art Lloyd of Amtrak (and originally Western Pacific) was one of the key people behind bringing back the well-known and much-loved "CZ" name. Second, regrettably the Amtrak reroute would mean the end to the last private-sector intercity passenger train in America, the tri-weekly Denver to Salt Lake City "Rio Grande Zephyr" that was a remnant of the original "CZ."

As can be seen on original "CZ" menus, serving trout in the dining car was a Rio Grande tradition, dating back to 1917 according to D&RGW officials I knew at the time. The Rio Grande made a special request of Amtrak president W. Graham Claytor, Jr., who was the one behind the reroute, that Amtrak would continue to serve trout on the dinner menu in the new "CZ's" dining cars the second night out in each direction, which is when the train would be traveling over the Rio Grande's "Mainline thru the Rockies." The quality of Amtrak's dining car service was recovering from the 1981 Congressional funding cuts, and Mr. Claytor was happy to grant this request. 

Now for any of you who were fortunate enough to enjoy the trout dinner on the original "CZ" or the later "RGZ," the trout served on those trains was very different from that which Amtrak was able to provide. It was a larger trout, and it was prepared more like an actual fresh trout without any stuffing. However, while the Amtrak trout was frozen, and came from a trout farm in Idaho, it was still a very tasty and enjoyable dinner item. Amtrak's trout, as I recall, was stuffed with crab, shrimp and cornmeal, and it was very popular during those early years of the renewed "CZ" running over the Rio Grande.  Also, as with the original trout dinners, the head was still on the fish when it was served, and that leads to the "rest of the story..."

During the early and mid-1980's, I was a frequent passenger aboard Amtrak's "Zephyr," as well as making eight trips aboard the "Rio Grande Zephyr" before it was discontinued. After we took over the Rio Grande route in 1983, I was able to enjoy Amtrak's version of the trout numerous times. However, there was one trip, in 1984 as I recall, where the trout dinner was most definitely different. I was eastbound along the Colorado River near Gore Canyon when my meal was served, and my dinner became the focus of everyone's attention at my table. Somehow during the freezing process, my trout's head had been bent 90 degrees to the left, so it was now "looking" directly at me as I prepared to eat! While definitely unusual, this strange circumstance did not bother me, although those at my table had some rather interesting comments on the sight! I truly think they were all glad when I was done and the waiter removed the "staring fish remains" from the table. This was definitely the most "interesting" and "unique" of the many trout dinners I had over the years crossing Colorado on the Rio Grande. Whenever I see menus that show Rio Grande's, or later Amtrak's trout dinners, this even always comes to mind. I do not believe trout is on the rather unimaginative Amtrak menus used on today's "California Zephyr," but I am not sure when that item was removed...

Thanks to all for allowing me to sharing this memory, and also thanks for sharing these menus and photos looking back to a very civilized streamliner!

Best wishes,

ShastaDaylight





 

Shasta,

Thanks for the story!

The other thing that was always inspiring about the CZ and RGZ menus was that they always had a prayer suggestion to offer thanks for the meal being served.  I don't recall any other railroad that did that.

Tim

njmidland Wrote:
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> Shasta,
>
> Thanks for the story!
>
> The other thing that was always inspiring about
> the CZ and RGZ menus was that they always had a
> prayer suggestion to offer thanks for the meal
> being served.  I don't recall any other railroad
> that did that.
>
> Tim

Could you imagine a suggestion like that today?  Never could happen. Pretty sad....not so long ago.
RichS

     The prayer offering was rather commonplace on dining car menus.  My memory is not precisely clear on this point, but I'd venture to say the majority of railroads followed this practice......and, in thinking about it, think it was particularly so in the US heartland, where religion ran the strongest.
AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

These menu's really make Amtrak look like a rolling MacDonalds. As for prayer, the ACLU would probalby take legal action against Amtrak if it were included now. 

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> These menu's really make Amtrak look like a
> rolling MacDonalds. As for prayer, the ACLU would
> probalby take legal action against Amtrak if it
> were included now. 
       Here we go folks, another great "Slamdersonism", the guy seems to have endless capacity to sour any conversation anytiime anyplace. 
Oh, and, by the way, I don't think he's correct about that ACLU remark.
AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA