America’s Lost Railroad Cuisine - A Newly Digitized Menu Collection

[Trollopian]

Read the article, and weep. Atlas Obscura highlights a newly-digitized collection of dining-car menus collected by railfan Ira Silverman. "After a long career in transit, he donated the collection to his alma mater’s [Northwestern University's] Transportation Library, which recently digitized it in its entirety." Hey, if you like trains, Chicago is the place to be. Many of the menus ("almost all, impressively, unstained") are from 1960 to 1971, the final decade of privately operated long-distance train travel in America.

The article pointedly notes that Silverman started collecting these menus as a teen. So much for the notion that young people avoid the dining-car experience.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dining-car-food

 

[chakk]

Read the article, and weep. Atlas Obscura highlights a newly-digitized collection of dining-car menus collected by railfan Ira Silverman. "After a long career in transit, he donated the collection to his alma mater’s [Northwestern University's] Transportation Library, which recently digitized it in its entirety." Hey, if you like trains, Chicago is the place to be. Many of the menus ("almost all, impressively, unstained") are from 1960 to 1971, the final decade of privately operated long-distance train travel in America.

The article pointedly notes that Silverman started collecting these menus as a teen. So much for the notion that young people avoid the dining-car experience.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dining-car-food

Glad that you posted this link for AU members. My son also sent me a link to the atlasobscura article this morning. Not sure how he found it -- perhaps he is also a train nerd like his dad?

 

[Dakota 400]

Very interesting! I wonder if one could access these menus on Northwestern University's web site.

I once had a very extensive collection of dining car menus. Some, I obtained from the trains on which I rode. Some, I obtained by simply writing the railroad's Dining Car Department's Executive and requesting some sample menus. Most timetables of the day had the name of that person listed somewhere in the timetable along with other executives of the railroad. When I first did that, I didn't really expect my request to be honored. But, it was! Due to a disaster that affected my home, I lost all of my transportation memorabilia--ship deck plans, menus, timetables, some collectible items, etc.

 

[Trollopian]

Very interesting! I wonder if one could access these menus on Northwestern University's web site..

Answer: Yes! The link is in the Atlas Obscura article ("in its entirety") though not very prominent. It leads to the "Ira Silverman Railroad Menu Collection" here: https://digitalcollections.library.northwestern.edu/collections/d3a8e587-cc58-4cb0-aea2-65465d42ec3e. 245 items total.

 

[yarrow]

thanks much for the link to the collection

 

[Barb Stout]

Mmm, Bismarck herring in cream with sliced apple! I had to look that one up and just as I suspected, it is pickled herring (with cream). Yum, but I don't think it would actually pair well with apple.

 

[Skyline]

Mmm, Bismarck herring in cream with sliced apple! I had to look that one up and just as I suspected, it is pickled herring (with cream). Yum, but I don't think it would actually pair well with apple.

Doesn't sound that great but I'm adventurous enough to give it a try. Sometimes one can be pleasantly surprised. It's just odd enough...

 

[Dakota 400]

Answer: Yes! The link is in the Atlas Obscura article ("in its entirety") though not very prominent. It leads to the "Ira Silverman Railroad Menu Collection" here: https://digitalcollections.library.northwestern.edu/collections/d3a8e587-cc58-4cb0-aea2-65465d42ec3e. 245 items total.

Thanks for this link. I have it in my Favorites list. His collection makes whatever I once had small.

 

[juanee]

I have been enjoying looking at the old menus. I have noticed on some menus it specifically states "employees are not permitted to serve verbal orders" . Anyone know why? For example: https://digitalcollections.library.northwestern.edu/items/c63b273c-b8c1-49af-865c-f386977e0033

 

[chakk]

I have been enjoying looking at the old menus. I have noticed on some menus it specifically states "employees are not permitted to serve verbal orders" . Anyone know why? For example: https://digitalcollections.library.northwestern.edu/items/c63b273c-b8c1-49af-865c-f386977e0033

In all pre-Amtrak years, and in the first several years of Amtrak, it was standard procedure on all trains that dining car orders had to be written by the customer on an order form.

 

[SP&S]

I have been enjoying looking at the old menus. I have noticed on some menus it specifically states "employees are not permitted to serve verbal orders" . Anyone know why? For example: https://digitalcollections.library.northwestern.edu/items/c63b273c-b8c1-49af-865c-f386977e0033

There were a couple of good reasons. It allowed the railroads to hire dining car personnel who were semi-literate and might work for less. More importantly, it eliminated all problems where the diner claimed, this isn't what I ordered. The order is right there, in the diner's own hand.

 

[drdumont]

I was aware of the first reason. The second makes sense as well.

 

[juanee]

Thank you for the historic info...

There are other great collections at Northwestern, not just menus, will be looking at the following this evening:

Streamliner Passenger Trains
https://digitalcollections.library.northwestern.edu/items/bf0962fe-9766-4e6d-a85a-6e8a682e1d8d

 

[Manny T]

This is the menu cover I remember as a kid, blue and white with Menu written on the cover in cursive:
https://streamlinermemories.info/?p=5959

I don't see it in the Silverman collection (it's earlier I think). I always ordered the same thing: open-faced hot turkey & gravy sandwich. Yum.

 

[ehbowen]

There were a couple of good reasons. It allowed the railroads to hire dining car personnel who were semi-literate and might work for less. More importantly, it eliminated all problems where the diner claimed, this isn't what I ordered. The order is right there, in the diner's own hand.

In addition, the written ticket provided documentation from diner table to commissary of items ordered and monies received for the purposes of inventory and cash control.

 

[dlagrua]

Yes dining by rail was special back in the day. I was too young to experience the food in the dining car so we purchased a cookbook called "Dining by Rail" that had many of the recipes used in the dining cars of the great railroads of yesteryear. We tried cooking those recipes at home and they are fabulous. The recipe for the original Railroad French Toast is there too. Food quality has really declined on Amtrak but lets hope Gene Arensons petition (that has over 149,000 signatures) when presented to congress will grab their attention. One can only hope.