Nostalgia & History > Meal stop Monday: MP

This 1939 MP menu cover captures the experience of railroad dining--including enjoying the scenery.
Do you remember your first meal in a dining car?


 

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Yes I do on board the Rio Grande.

tomstp:   Tell us more about that Rio Grande dining experience.

I simply recall the many meals I had aboard Burlington Zephyrs. Most of them were on the Twin Cities Zephyrs. A double-decked chicken sandwich was the usual lunch choice. When aboard the Denver Zephyr the Colorado trout was a frequent selection. When you walked into the diner you were greeted by the subtle smells from the kitchen were in the air, the white linen tablecloths, red roses (on the Twin Zephyrs) or Colorado carnations ( on the Denver Zephyrs), the steward ushering you to your seat, and the 'tingling silver orchestra", comprised of knives, spoons, and forks placed close together, hitting against each other caused by vibrations of the diner as it rolled along the rails. Thanks for posting the great menu artwork that sparked my recollections.
Silver View Mike

Nothing finer than dinner in the diner. I really miss that.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

My first experience in a diner was on the FW&D Ry  Sam Houston Zephyr  as a boy . Silver View most accurately described the dining car experience in his response. I was six years old on that day and my aunt treated me with my first passenger train ride to Dallas for my birthday. The experience was unforgetable .  
My last dining car experience was aboard an ex NYC diner on the Rio Grande Scenic RR in 2015 when my late friend John Arbuckle treated me to lunch. 

I don't remember my first meal in a dining car, or any other railroad firsts......they all came while I was riding that finest conveyence, my Mom's uterus.  I do, however, remember well my favorite dining car meal as a little one......pancakes, with real butter and real maple syrup, a real treat for me.  These must have really stood out, because I don't remember other dining car meals from that era at all.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

My first Dining Car meal was on the Pennsy on the way to the 1964 Worlds Fair in New York ( Queens) from 30th Street in Philadelphia.  Being four years old I was given the souvnier Chilren's Menu in card board, which when folded up was paper toy dining car.  I wish I had the menu now....it'd be a collectors item.  

I think my first few on-board meals were in SP "Automat" cars, but I survived to go on to better things.

I was 10 years old in 1956 on a GM&O dining car.  I had saved up my money and my mother agreed to take me into the dining car.  The steward even gave me his business card!    Food: perhaps a sandwich of some sort.  But it was the highlight of my trip from Lincoln, IL to St. Louis.