For research, can you FOIA DfT for British Rail information?

[jessfdm]

Contact Prue Leith! (she is still around).

Solid shout!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Aug 2024 ==

A few thoughts / hazy recollections. In the 1970s, cooking in Mark 1 vehicles (RBR, RKB, RK, etc) relied almost exclusively on propane gas (grills, ovens, hobs, Stills boilers, etc). No microwaves or freezers, so no ice cream. Most restaurant car food was prepared fresh, as were buffet car sandwiches. Pre-peeled potatoes were available, but needed final trimming by hand. It was wise to slice onions and tomatoes whilst the train was stationary. Saute potatoes were popular because chips were not possible following the ban on deep fat fryers, which although strapped down to stove tops were heated by a naked flame and could cause horrendous accidents if they ignited or broke loose. Toast was cooked under the grill.

With most meals silver served, fried eggs had to be served on a half slice of toast to stop them sliding off the service tray. If you stretch to roast beef, the Yorkshires were cooked in trays and sliced into portions when done.

If you want to include something a bit unusual, I suggest you include the use of "pomme", a singularly unpleasant variety of instant mashed potato which was carried as a precaution in case of emergencies - happily seldom required!

That's amazing! Thanks so much!

 

[Rescars]

Also, no salad complete without gala (veal, ham and egg) pie and no afternoon tea service complete without a toasted teacake!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Aug 2024 ==

Special full dining workings involving lunch and dinner were typically silver served with three courses for both meals (soup, meat or cheese salad and fruit or cheeseboard for lunch; cold starter, roast beef, lamb or pork, then fruit pie or cheeseboard for dinner). Getting the soup from the tureen into the bowl without splashing the passenger was always entertaining, especially if the saloon rode rough or encountered points at the wrong moment!

If the menus seem a bit tame, you should take into account not only the equipment limitations, but also the lack of space available. In a RBR, the entire kitchen and storage area occupied less than a third of the length of the carriage, from which up to 64 covers might be served at a sitting. The kitchen in a RK was bigger and might be staffed by three cooks, but they were expected to (and did) produce 224 covers at a sitting. To put the challenge into context, consider the issues MasterChef contestants face when cooking for bulk numbers - and they are merely delivering a cafeteria service from almost unlimited space with their feet firmly on the ground.

 

[WesternLancer]

Also, no salad complete without gala (veal, ham and egg) pie and no afternoon tea service complete without a toasted teacake!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Aug 2024 ==

Special full dining workings involving lunch and dinner were typically silver served with three courses for both meals (soup, meat or cheese salad and fruit or cheeseboard for lunch; cold starter, roast beef, lamb or pork, then fruit pie or cheeseboard for dinner). Getting the soup from the tureen into the bowl without splashing the passenger was always entertaining, especially if the saloon rode rough or encountered points at the wrong moment!

If the menus seem a bit tame, you should take into account not only the equipment limitations, but also the lack of space available. In a RBR, the entire kitchen and storage area occupied less than a third of the length of the carriage, from which up to 64 covers might be served at a sitting. The kitchen in a RK was bigger and might be staffed by three cooks, but they were expected to (and did) produce 224 covers at a sitting. To put the challenge into context, consider the issues MasterChef contestants face when cooking for bulk numbers - and they are merely delivering a cafeteria service from almost unlimited space with their feet firmly on the ground.

Great post.
To make proper comparison with how tame or not menus were you’d need to compare with restaurant dining out options in uk towns in the same era of course. Many of the more traditional restaurants or even hotel dining rooms would have offered similar ranges I suspect.

And if you go back a bit I suspect even something as exotic as spaghetti in the 1950s may have involved a trip to somewhere exotic like soho to find it in a restaurant. Though I’d stand corrected on that if i am wrong.

 

[Rescars]

Great post.
To make proper comparison with how tame or not menus were you’d need to compare with restaurant dining out options in uk towns in the same era of course. Many of the more traditional restaurants or even hotel dining rooms would have offered similar ranges I suspect.

And if you go back a bit I suspect even something as exotic as spaghetti in the 1950s may have involved a trip to somewhere exotic like soho to find it in a restaurant. Though I’d stand corrected on that if i am wrong.

Seems about right. Panorama broadcast their famous film about the Spaghetti Tree Harvest in "Switzerland" on 1st April 1957.

Conventional establishments had no constraints on deep fat frying or ice cream though. Anyone for a 70's treat of scampi and chips followed by a neopolitan ice, washed down with a pint of gassy keg bitter? Sadly (or happily), none of this on the restaurant car menu

 

[jessfdm]

Hope none of you were forced to wear this during your time D:

 

[Rescars]

Hope none of you were forced to wear this during your time D:

Happily not! Nothing wrong with a black bow tie!

 

[WesternLancer]

Hope none of you were forced to wear this during your time D:

That does look mid 80’s travellers fare for some outlets. About the time I worked for them but not that sort of outlet.

Is the image dated?

 

[jessfdm]

That does look mid 80’s travellers fare for some outlets. About the time I worked for them but not that sort of outlet.

Is the image dated?

I think it's 1988 that file just after they'd gone ltd

 

[WesternLancer]

I think it's 1988 that file just after they'd gone ltd

Thanks. Style wise date looks about right!

Reading it again that says it’s the std uniform for station buffet based travelers fare staff. I guess all staff would have worn that. I’d left by then I think.