After a few years of bad food on plastic dinnerware, Amtrak announced that it would offer real china on the Coast Starlight and perhaps one or two other trains. Again, I forget exactly when this happened, but it was sometime … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Menu
Some time in the early 1980s–I think it was about the time Amtrak inaugurated the Portland section of the Empire Builder–Amtrak cut back on its dining car service. Many of the hot meals, even such things as French toast, were … Continue reading
This menu suggests that, in 1981, Amtrak was no longer using laminated menus. However, the range of meals available in the dinners had improved since the 1980 menu shown here a few days ago. While that one just had a … Continue reading
Like the 1979 lunch menu shown a few days ago, this one is protected in plastic lamination. The only crass advertising is a two-paragraph blurb on the back cover, which also lists wine and beverages. Click image to download a … Continue reading
This menu quite obviously goes with yesterday’s lunch menu. The cartoon locomotive on the cover is exactly the same, though the sky is darker suggesting an evening rather than a noon meal. The other cars in the train shown on … Continue reading
This menu was obviously designed to go with yesterday’s breakfast menu, but unlike yesterday’s plain paper menu, this one is printed on both sides and laminated in heavy plastic. Two of these menus could be laid side-by-side to show a … Continue reading
This menu was printed on one side of lightweight paper. It looks like it could have doubled as a placemat, but from the fact it is folded I suspect instead that it was meant to be inserted in some sort … Continue reading
Here is a full menu–with breakfast, lunch, and dinner–typical of diners on Amtrak long-distance trains in the late 1970s. Several pages say “No. 5/6” in tiny letters, suggesting this particular menu was used on the San Francisco Zephyr. Click image … Continue reading
Prior to Amtrak, the Montrealer was a joint Canadian National-Boston & Maine-New Haven-Pennsylvania overnight train from Washington to Montreal. In the reverse direction the train was called the Washingtonian. A day train following the same route was called the Ambassador … Continue reading
Amtrak may have issued its own menus before this one, which is dated April, 1972. But it seems likely that it depended on the menu stock it inherited from the private railroads for many months. When it did make its … Continue reading