Appletons Guide, 1898.Where can I find a description of what train travel was like in the early days? What was it really like to travel across the country at night in a CPRR sleeping car? How would passengers eat their meals and sleep on the journey?
See Bits of Travel at Home: From Ogden to San Francisco, 1887 for a wonderful description of nighttime travel. Also see the other historical readings giving 19th century contemporary accounts about travel on the transcontinental railroad and page 8 of Williams’ Pacific Tourist Guidebook. The CPRR Museum has a number of photographs of passenger trains and of the interiors of coach, dining, and sleeping cars. The Car Builder’s Dictionary has diagrams showing the layout of the cars. “All trains stop at regular eating stations, where first class meals are furnished at prices ranging from 75¢ to $1.00 for Express Trains, and from 50¢ to 75¢ for Emigrant Trains.” (Dining car service was not available west of Ogden on the Overland Route until the acquisition of three dining cars by the SPRR in 1894.) See descriptions of meals in a magazine article and another description in William’s Pacific Tourist Guidebook [Index] and the fabulous advertisements for restaurants serving meals to passengers
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