Evening star., 1939-12-03
You'll eat we'll when
you travel by train
% X.oes1u !BeeM
Author OF "Hsh iron-A
Book Of Trojns"

- NE of the oldest words in rail-
roading jargon, and one which
~ for several decades after the
ails first spanned the American con-
inent was familiar to all travellers in
he west, is peck" Before the days of
estaurant cars, this word signified
he wenty-minute stop universally al
owed at wayside taverns and station
restaurants. Breakfast. dinner and
upper stops at ordinaries, Of fair or
Ill repute, became part of the legend of
rail travel, and almost everywhere the
tariff was dollar fiat in greenbacks, or
Blk bits in silver
After the iron of the Central Pacific
met the westering Union Pacific at
,Promontory, and through travel be-
tween Chicago and the coast was
instituted, there began to appear
arrangements for eating aboard trains.
lin 1869 the Pullman Palace Car Com
,pany began building what we're known
as commissary cars. These were an
outgrowth of the earlier hotel cars
where dining and sleeping accommo-
dations we're housed in the same unit
Decorations assumed opium dream
proportions and the menus resembled
nothing 50 much as Lord Mayors
nt I ov~l10sc cs,,1@hon
Fringed and looped curtains. velvet
draperies. plush hassocks. antimacas-
sars, cloisonne, ormolu and elaborate
| woodwork we're the last word of
elegance.
The bill of fare on the Great West
ems diner President" listed (among
other snacks and trifles) oysters raw,
fried and roasted; douffle, devilled and
en- brochette. There were grouse and
partridge. pheasant, woodcock, heath
hen, quail, antelope, buffalo steak,
venison, roast beef and fowl. mutton
and hare. golden plover, blue winged
teal, canvasback, veal outlets. snipe,
Kansas City steaks and steak and kid
ney pie. Most portions we're sixty
cents. Contemporary illustrations and
line drawings depict negro walters
staggering down the aisles under trays
heaped with the fruits of the earth 1t
was an era of few gastronomic inhibi-
tlons, and the solid gold toothpick was
its hallmark.
The picture today is different. Gone
are the gaudy decorations. the over
powering menus. Railroad diners,
their stewards and their chefs have
come of age Though the past sounds
heroic in retrospect. there are few
travellers today who would surrender
the celebrated salad bowl of the
Pennsylvania crack varnish trains;
or the Boston baked beans and rib
ends of beef on the New Haven; or the
grilled pompano with lemon butter on
the Seaboard Airline's Orange Blossom
special; or the really distinguished
Southern cooking on the Chesapeake
and Ohio's crack mainliners. the
George Washington, the Sportsman
and the Fast Flying Virginian.
There are also the fine specialties to
be had on the trains of the Atlantic
Coast Line and of the Louisville and
Nashville. And we've eaten many a
delicious meal en- route to Washington
over the Baltimore and Ohio. Or for
those going North, the Boston and
Maine has its own glory of New
England fare, just as the Southern
Railway offers you some of the coun-
try's best hot breads. Late dinner on
the New York Centrals north-bound
trains smacks delightfully."- of the Lake
Erie whitefish. And there is excellent
cooking to glorify trip on the
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the
Illinois Central, the Hiawatha of the
Milwaukee line, or the Sunshine Spe-
cial of the Missouri Pacific.
In the west the most MAGNIFICENT