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I went from Ca to Co when I started college about 100 years ago. Yes, I ate on the train, had a wonderful breakfast (my grandma had sent food for me to have for dinner) I do remember it was very formal service and the food was good but very expensive. We have traveled short distances, in recent years are trains in UK without dining cars, the same on the train from Montreal to Quebec City last fall.
Traveled from Boston to Iowa at least twice on the railway.... took quite a while, but I was a little kid, so I didn't mind. We each had a 'slumbercoach', which each tiny room consisted of a pull-down bed, chair, sink and toilet. At the time, quite decent, and no where near the cost of a a true berth. Don't know what they do anymore.... it's been 30 years.....
The dining cars back then were superb. Fine linen, china, tableware. Sort of reminiscent of when the railroad was in its heyday...
If you have the time, it is a fairly inexpensive way to travel (though Boston to Detroit is almost 20 hours, 8 hours longer than it would take to drive, and much much longer than flying).
(As an aside, as you ride across the country by train, there are a bunch of wonderful sites.... I don't remember exactly where, but there is a horseshoe somewhere in the midwest, where, you are travelling in the passenger's cars, and you look across a valley, and you see the locomotive going the opposite direction.... Cool.)
If you really want to have fun, go on the American Orient Express. Not cheap, but the definition of luxury. But I believe they have since gone bankrupt.
About 9 years ago we rode Amtrak round-trip from NYC to Orlando, and slept in two connecting sleeper cabins. Upon our arrival a conductor came up to us and loaded our luggage into the cabins personally. It was considered first-class, and we had dinner and breakfast in the dining car. I remember dinner consisted of filet mignon, a potato, salad, and not sure what else. It was fun, it was all served by waiters on fine china with wine glasses etc., in a formal atmosphere. Breakfast included OJ with cereal or eggs, a typical breakfast. While not the best food I have ever eaten, it wasn't horrible. The most challenging part of eating was keeping the glasses upright and our drinks from spilling, the train was extremely bumpy. The sleeping cabins themselves were small with two fold-out beds in each cabin, a tiny toilet and an even tinier stand-up shower, and the bathrooms smelled AWFUL. We also had a small TV in each cabin, with one or two movies that played over and over. Overall it was a fun trip, but far more expensive than flying. For a family of four the round-trip train tickets including meals was over $3000.
I've ridden trains many times in Europe, but never ate in one of their dining cars. I don't even remember them having one.
Looks pretty much like the food I got when I rode Amtrak from LA to Michigan and back, 16 years ago. I wasn't disappointed with the food or the service at all.
I've also ridden the Eurostar (Paris/London) first class, and remember getting an excellent meal, served at my seat, and wine.
I remember eating lunch on the L.& N. when I was about twelve or thirteen, traveling back home with my mother after visiting my grandparents two states away. The table was nicely set, with a white linen tablecloth and matching napkins, heavy china and flatware, that wouldn't slide around easily or bounce off the table during stretches of rough track (not that I recall any such stretches), a bud vase with a stem of some kind of flowers, and an ample menu. I can still hear the sound of the ice gently tinkling in my water glass...
There was a compact but still very adequate kitchen at one end of the dining car, with a passage along the side with a long window. The rest of the car had tables for four all along both sides, as I recall - and there were large color photos of scenic attractions along the route adorning the end walls of the car - most train companies had these, I can remember seeing Natural Bridge of Virginia on the C.& O.'s "George Washington".
All the chefs and waiters were middle-aged to slightly older very courtly black gentlemen, as were the conductors.
I remember having Swiss steak, (canned) baby green peas, and I think mashed potatoes, a roll, and apple pie for lunch that day, as we rolled through west Tennessee and up into western Kentucky.
It was another time and almost another world back then - and I miss it.
Yeah of course I have. I had a a gourmet 3-course meal on the West Coast Main Line quite some time ago. The train also hit a tree that had fallen on the track and people had to get out to move it so we could continue.
I remember my sister and I went to Florida with my grandparents a couple of times. They drove us from our home in Connecticut, to Virginia. And then we'd get on the Autotrain, and we'd pick the car back up when we got to Florida. The car travelled on the train too, in special compartments. There was a dining car and a lounge. I don't remember what we ate, which meal it was. But the experience itself was pretty spectacular. I know I was at least 10 years old, because I had my guitar with me. I brought it into the lounge and was playing guitar just to keep myself entertained, and some of the passengers tipped me and the bartender gave me a Shirley Temple. I thought I was all flavors of cool beans
BTW this was back in the early 1970's.
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