20 Things Old-Fashioned Train Travel Had That Modern Travelers Never See

In the 1920s and ’30s, a long strip of red cloth would be unfurled from Track 34 in New York’s Grand Central Terminal each day for passengers aboard the 20th Century Limited, the flagship express service of the New York Central Railroad, bound for Chicago. And boy did they get treated like A-list celebrities. Men would receive a carnation, while women would be given a corsage. Although the train had launched many years earlier, predating the terminal, it was the carpet that gave rise to the expression that we all know today: red-carpet treatment.

Starting in 1867, the Pullman Company, which built and operated sleeper cars, mostly hired enslaved Black men as porters. These workers would collect passengers’ shoes from the berth lockers in the evening, then spend the night polishing them in the lounge car so they’d be ready when guests woke up. The grueling work often required 20-hour days for a small base salary, and porters had to buy their own shoe polish and uniforms while enduring routine discrimination. In 1925, porters, along with labor organizer A. Philip Randolph established the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the nation’s first major Black union.

The idea for a glass-topped railcar took root in 1944 when GM exec Cyrus Osborn rode in the lookout section of a freight caboose as it snaked through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado. The following year, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad put out the first Vista-Dome car, an upper deck of glass that afforded panoramic views of the passing peaks. In 1949, the California Zephyr ran a full fleet of them.

The Railway Post Office mail-pickup system started in the 1870s and continued until the 1950s. Clerks riding the Railway Post Office cars handled mail pickup, which let the trains stay running without stopping at every small town. Postmasters placed their outgoing mail on wooden cranes beside the tracks. At 35 to 60 miles an hour, a clerk swung out a V-shaped steel arm to snatch the pouch out of the air. The clerk simultaneously kicked the mail bag bound for the current town off the car onto the platform.

Steam locomotives used massive amounts of water and had to be constantly refilled. To save time, railroads such as the New York Central installed track pans, shallow steel troughs up to 2,500 feet in length, laid down between the rails. Traveling at 45 mph or more, the fireman would lower a scoop underneath the tender, and the train’s momentum would force the water up into the tank in a matter of seconds, shooting a spray behind the train. Diesel engines rendered this practice unnecessary in the 1950s.

In 1883, in Raton, New Mexico, a man named Fred Harvey started hiring young women, known as “Harvey Girls,” to work at quality restaurants located inside railroad stations in the American West. When trains stopped at a station, the conductor would send word of what his passengers planned to eat, and within minutes of their arrival, they would be served multiple courses of food. Harvey Girls were only allowed to work inside the station, and all of this had to fit inside the mandatory 30-minute stop. Over the years, more than 100,000 women worked as Harvey Girls throughout the American West.

The Pullman Company unveiled the roomette in 1937 for those who didn’t want a curtained-off bunk to share with someone else. These minuscule rooms featured a locking sliding door, a fold-down sink, a private toilet, and their own thermostat. The bed, complete with sheets and blankets, was stowed away in a closet until the traveler decided they were ready to go to bed, and then folded down right over the toilet and seat.

Lounge cars on elite trains, such as the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Broadway Limited and the 20th Century Limited, included working barbershops, an additional-fee feature that didn’t exist on regular trains. The barber sat in a massive hydraulic chair fixed to the floor, and while hurtling along at more than 70 mph, he gave passengers haircuts, hot-towel shaves, and manicures. Valets onboard used special steam equipment to press passengers’ suits and dresses overnight, so they could step off the train ready for a day at work.

The long multi-day trips that crisscrossed the country left passengers sweaty and dirty, so the world’s best trains equipped their sleeper-lounge cars with tiled shower stalls. First-class riders could book a time with the lounge attendant, who would deliver towels and soap. The hot water was sourced directly from steam lines fed by the locomotive’s own boiler. These showers existed in first-class only, from the 1920s through the 1950s.

The first railroad nurses were part of Union Pacific’s Challenger train crew, followed a couple of years later by Santa Fe’s Courier Nurse service. These nurses traveled with the train’s most prestigious service, providing reassurance to nervous passengers during the Great Depression. They also had a private room in the passenger lounge and, on multi-day excursions, kept an eye on unsupervised minors. The nurses mixed baby formula, administered medication, and performed first aid. Unlike general hostesses, they were required to be licensed registered nurses.

On Labor Day, 1890, a Black baggage porter at New York’s Grand Central Station tied a piece of red flannel around his cap so passengers could more easily find him among the throngs of holiday travelers. He did so well that by 1895, George H. Daniels, a New York Central passenger agent, made red caps standard across the railroad. Red Caps carried trunks and directed bags through train stations throughout the country, a different assignment than the Pullman porters, who serviced the sleeping cars.

On first-class trains such as the 20th Century Limited and Santa Fe’s Super Chief, dining-car meals were governed by fine-dining conventions from the late 19th century until the 1950s. Once the last meal was finished, the waiter placed a small silver or crystal bowl filled with warm water, sometimes with a lemon slice or orchid petal floating on the surface, and a fresh napkin before each diner, so they could rinse their fingertips before departing. Coach passengers did not get one.

Railroads treated their dining car service like a flagship restaurant. So they ordered special china, like the Santa Fe’s Mimbreno pattern, which was based on Native American pottery, or the Baltimore & Ohio’s blue colonial scenes. The tables were covered with starched Irish linen, and the silverware was stamped with the railroad’s own emblem. The plates and bowls were heavy, too. They didn’t want them sliding off the table as the train bounced along at 70 miles an hour. No paper plates here.

Before 1947, if you wanted to give someone a message before you arrived, you had to give a written telegram to the conductor, and he would wire the message from the next station. That year, the flagship trains, the 20th Century Limited and the Broadway Limited, added radio-telephone booths in their lounge cars, with an operator connecting the call via trackside towers to the regular telephone system. The service was only available near the trackside towers on select eastern routes, but at least it was possible to make a phone call while on a train!

When a train had departed, conductors would walk the car, punching fares. They used a heavy metal punch to cut a different shape, a star, a spade, a double triangle, that was unique to that employee. The railroad kept them on file for audit purposes, and they served as the conductor’s legal signature on paper tickets. Rather than risk waking sleeping passengers, the conductor clipped a small colored hat-check card above the seat. Each notch and color told the conductor where that passenger would disembark.

Lounge and observation cars maintained built-in writing desks with inkwells, pens, and free stationery for travelers who wished to pen a letter while enjoying the passing landscape. The railroads had letterheads, envelopes, and postcards printed bearing the name of the train, such as “On Board the California Zephyr.” After the letter was written, the passenger could deposit the mail into an onboard slot and have it stamped with the date at the next stop. Each letter was a form of advertising for the railroad.

There were also club and lounge cars on the train, which had comfortable chairs, couches, a bar, and card tables where you could play bridge or poker. In the 1920s, railroads added cabinets that held radios that picked up local stations and turntables for phonographs. The signal wasn’t always strong, and it was weak when the train went through tunnels and over mountainous country, but to passengers, it was part of what turned a long journey into a sort of mobile club.

Overnight passengers rode in what were called Pullman open section cars until private rooms were introduced. During the day, passengers faced one another while sitting on cushy seats. At night, the porter made up the lower seat as a bed and pulled a second berth down from the ceiling. Heavy green curtains were buttoned shut to separate passengers. This setup reigned until the roomette was introduced.

The steam whistle, used by locomotive engineers in the days before train radios, communicated with train crews and other townsfolk in standardized codes. Two long blasts, a short, and a long meant the train was approaching a public crossing. Three short blasts when stationary warned that the train was about to back up, and a single long blast was code for a station ahead. These rules dated back to the 1830s and remained in effect until the 1950s.

Between the 1890s and the 1930s, the final car on a prestige express was an observation car, with an open-air platform at the rear end, surrounded by a decorative iron or brass railing. Passengers would sit in armchairs on the porch, watching the rails disappear into the night. Suspended above the railing was a drumhead, an illuminated glass sign with the train’s name written on it, say, the Empire Builder or the Broadway Limited. In the late 1930s, however, enclosed curved observation cars took their place.

This content was created with the help of AI.