Other Cars

A dining car (British English: restaurant car) or diner is a railroad passenger car that serves meals on a train in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. more...

Home
Action Figures
Beanies
Construction Toys & Kits
Diecast & Vehicles
Toys & Games
Creative Toys/ Activities
Educational Toys
Electronic Pets
Fast Food/ Cereal/ Sweets...
Games
Jigsaws & Puzzles
Other Toys & Games
Outdoor Toys & Activities
Pre-School/ Young Children
Radio-Controlled Toys
Scalextric & Slot Car
Accessories/ Tuning
Braids
Controllers
Guide Blades
Lap Counters
Motors
Other Accessories/ Tuning
Power Supplies
Tyres
Wheels
Boxed Sets (Track & Cars)
Cars
Carrera
Fly
Ninco
Other Cars
Scalextric (1980-Now)
Scalextric (Pre-1980)
Scalextric Boxed Cars
Scalextric Unboxed Cars
SCX
Catalogues
Minic Motorway
Other Slot Cars
Track
Micro Scalextric
Other Track Types
Scalextric Sports
SCX & Scalextric Classic
Trackside Props/ Buildings
Soft Toys/ Stuffed Animals
Steam
Toy Soldiers
Toys Model Kits
TV & Film Character Toys
Vintage/ Classic Toys
Wargames & Role-Playing

It is distinct from other types of railroad food service cars that do not duplicate the full-service restaurant experience, principally cars of various types in which one purchases food from a walk-up counter to be consumed either within the car or elsewhere in the train. Grill cars, in which customers sit on stools at a counter and purchase and consume food cooked on a grill behind the counter are generally considered to be an "intermediate" type of dining car.

History

Before the inclusion of dining cars in passenger train became common practice, a rail passenger's only option for meal service in transit was to patronize one of the roadhouses often located near the railroad's water stops. Fare typically consisted of nothing more than rancid meat, cold beans, and week-old coffee. Such poor conditions understandably discouraged many Americans from making the journey westward.

Most railroads began offering some form of meal service on their trains even before the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. By the mid-1880s, dedicated dining cars were a normal part of all long-distance trains departing from Chicago for points westward, save for those of the Santa Fe, who relied on America's first interstate network of restaurants to feed its passengers en route. The legendary "Harvey Houses," located strategically along the line, served top-quality meals to railroad patrons during water stops and other planned layovers and were favored over in-transit facilities for all trains operating west of Kansas City.

As competition among the railroads intensified, dining car service was taken to new levels. When the Santa Fe rolled out its new "Pleasure Dome"-Lounge cars in 1951, the railroad introduced the travelling public to the Turquoise Room, promoted as "The only private dining room in the world on rails." The room accommodated 12 guests, and could be reserved anytime for private dinner or cocktail parties, or other special functions. The room was often used by the era's celebrities and dignitaries while traveling on the Super Chief.

In one of the most common dining car configurations, one end of the car contains a galley (with a side aisle next to it, so that passengers can pass through that end of the car to other cars of the train) while the other end supports table or booth seating on either side of a center aisle.

Trains with high demand for dining car services have sometimes featured "double-unit dining cars" consisting of two adjacent cars functioning to some extent as a single entity, generally with one car containing a galley plus table or booth seating and the other car containing table or booth seating only.

Read more at Wikipedia.org