Dining on a Train

 

Hi! Kit Morgan here and today I want to talk about dining on a train. First off, have you traveled by train? I have, several times and remember the dining car. But dining on a train has evolved over the years and it's interesting to note how changes in menus and even tableware have changed along with it.

As many of you know, I'm part of the Love Train Series. The books are fun and all of us had to do some research on train travel. Lucky for me, I have a son who lives in Northern California and one of the things I like to do when I visit him is go to Old Sacramento and see the train museum. If you ever get a chance to see it, do! It's a fascinating place and I've learned a lot from each visit. 

One such visit I took pictures of the different place settings found in the dining car. But enough about the china, we'll get back to that. Making meals on a train was no mean feat as one was cooking on a moving vehicle. Having a stocked pantry could also be a challenge. Trying to stock said pantry along the train route wasn't easy. It's not like the cook and steward could hop off the train and go shopping. They could wire ahead and tell them what they needed, what time the train would be pulling into the station, and to please have their groceries ready, but that was frowned upon. Railroad employees didn't have time to run to a market and buy eggs. 

So, the chef and steward had to get good at calculating what they wanted so it would get used up before they had to restock. Perishables such as fruit and vegetables were taken into careful consideration. You couldn't use up left over perishables on the next trip. Not when they were already going bad. So, dining cars were run much like restaurants in upper class hotels. Train lines hired the best chefs they could find and have them create dishes for the line then teach the train chefs how to make them. This made it easier to plan ahead and stock the pantry in the train's kitchen.

Railroads also saw to it that regional lines served certain foods. If you were traveling from New Orleans to Chicago, for example, you'd find Cajun specialties on the menu. If traveling from the west coast to the east coast, you'd be served fresh water fish. Traveling East to West, salt water fish and seafood.

Alas, the golden age of dining on a train began to fade as the Great Depression and World War II brought restrictions on travel not to mention goods. After World War II, the train operators pooled their efforts to make train travel the primary mode of passenger transportation, but by then, the car became the popular option. So, fancy train cars along with equally fancy dining cars are a thing of the past. But don't let that stop you for having a meal on a train. They still have dining cars where you can get a hot meal. It might not be swank and elegant, but you'll enjoy eating on a train just the same!

Until next time,

Kit

You find Ivy, Love Train Book 7 on Amazon