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So that’s how some trains (i.e. the 20th Century Limited, Broadway Limited, and Super Chief) gained enormous fame for their dining cars. Some of them attracted the biggest business tycoons, movie stars, and celebrities. The cuisine with elaborate serv- ice was still in the red. But it was good PR, and the deficit was more than compensated for by the dollars rolling in on the freight side.
Discovery 4 Well into the 20th century, after private pas- senger rail’s “last hurrah” in the World War II years, freight rail customers, along with celebrities and other high-end riders, had deserted the cushy limiteds and their “meals to die for” and instead opted for jet travel. Passenger rail, never a big money maker, and often not a money-maker at all, was bleeding red ink. Result: Some railroads tried to discourage customers from traveling by train. In the process, they lowered the quality of food service in the diner or, in the case of the Southern Pacific, substituted vending machines.
Discovery 5 By the time Amtrak assumed the crippled passenger train operations in 1971, it inher- ited the dining cars on the overnight servic- es, but not the kind of service of the long gone “good old days.”
Discovery 6 In the early ’80s, Congress wrote a law that ordered Amtrak’s dining cars to make a prof- it or break even. This writer remembers all too well going into a dining car on the (now
defunct) Montrealer and finding the dining car steward welcoming him to a quick mi- crowaved pre-packaged meal worthy per- haps of McDonald’s or some other fast food chain.
Then Graham Claytor, a no-nonsense, leg- endary rail executive familiar with the din- ing car as the central experience for most long-distance train travelers, became Am- trak CEO. He was appalled at what he found, and ordered the return of the real dining cars on the long-hauls. Further, he and members of Congress agreed informally in hearings that “profit” as applied to dining cars would be loosely based on estimates as to how many cus- tomers and paying passengers the Amtrak operation attracted because of the dining car experience, or conversely, how many cus- tomers would desert the rails if the food service deteriorated.
Discovery 7
Thirty years or so later, in 2013, a senior member of Congress, Rep. John Mica (R- Fla.) suddenly announced that — hey, guess what? Amtrak is losing money on its food service. It isn’t making a “profit.” (There’s that word game again. He should have con- sulted George Pullman in the Great Be- yond.) Further, Mica demanded that the lit- eral word of the 1982 law be obeyed to the letter. So Congress held deep, earth-shatter- ing hearings on $16 hot dogs, etc. So, 145 years later we have come full circle. This is where we came in. G’night, folks.
Wes Vernon is a Washington-based writer and veteran broadcast journalist.
AUGUST 28-31, 2013 BACK TO BASICS
Come connect with other narrow-minded people in an up-close and personal setting.
Manufacturers, Vendors & Modular Layouts in the Hotel Clinics Model & Photo Contests Layout Tours
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Disneyland & Orange Empire Railroads Grizzly Flats Knott's Berry Farm Steam Operations Nethercutt Museum
Registration: $95.00; $110.00 after June 1, 2013. Includes Free Spouse Badge. Leticia Smith, Registrar E-mail:
registrar@33rdnngc.com
33rd NNGC P.O. Box 70323 Pasadena CA 91117 Phone: Jeff Smith – (818) 590-1729
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www.33rdnngc.com Photos, copyright: Robert J. Chaparro. 18 AUGUST 2013 •
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