[PRCo] Re: train travel

[Schneider Fred]

I had a friend who worked for the Pennsy (or the Big Red Subway) and  
he felt that the Pennsy had good and bad points.   The good was that  
during World War Two, if you got to anywhere on the PRR on a Sunday  
afternoon, they would get you home.   Of course the conductors might  
have been walking through the cars on the arm rests.   Other  
railroads might have been more conscious of their image and would  
have told you, "Sorry, we have no space available."   The bad, Jim  
would comment, was the PRR and SP dining car meals were among the  
worst on any railroad anywhere.   I've heard that even in the 1960s  
people in one area down south would use the Southern Crescent for  
Sunday dinner, riding out in the dining car and then coming back on  
the opposing train ... because it was the best restaurant in town.

We don't understand today the concept that Fred Harvey allowed his  
dining car stewards on the Super Chief to buy fresh trout from  
fisherman in Colorado, if they looked superior when brought to the  
station, and it would be on the menu that evening.   Some railroads  
tried incredibly hard to maintain an image.




On Nov 3, 2008, at 8:17 AM, Dennis F. Cramer wrote:

> My concept of the Glory Days would be between 1918 and 1930.
>
> I have done, via Amtrak, Pittsburgh to Chicago (both directions),  
> Chicago to
> Seattle, Seattle to LA, LA to Chicago (both directions), LA to  
> Sacramento,
> Sacramento to Chicago, Chicago to Washington, DC via New River  
> Gorge, DC to
> Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh to Philadelphia (both directions) and  
> Lorton, VA to
> Sanford, FL.
>
> The mountain grandeur of the west is spectacular, but riding a dome  
> car (not
> Superliner) from Washington to Pittsburgh was a real treat.  And  
> this is
> coming from a died in the wool PRR fan!
>
>
> Dennis F. Cramer
>       Trombone
>
>
>
>