The New Haven RR Image Page -- Dining Car Department Manuals

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Dining Car Department Manuals

November 1st, 2004

The New Haven Railroad was famous for the food that was served on board its passenger trains. Typically operated at a loss, the New Haven was the only railroad in the country that boasted of earning a profit on its food service during the modern era. This month we present some of the specialized manuals that the New Haven Railroad Dining Car Department issued to food service car crewmembers. All items from the collection of Marc Frattasio.

Note, if you are interested in learning more about the New Haven's food service operations, a comprehensive book on this subject by author Marc Frattasio called New Haven Railroad - Dining on the Shore Line Route is available through the NHRHTA. See the NHRHTA's book sales page for details.

This manual was issued to dining car crewmembers. Although it is entitled a "book of rules", it is in fact an instruction manual for operating dining cars. Among other things the book explains the duties of stewards, waiters, and cooks before, during, and after a run, describes the use of air conditioning, kitchen gear, and other equipment, and provides instruction in the sanitary handling of certain food items. Intended to supplement the railroad's standard recipe book (presented below), this manual also provides instructions for preparing and serving a variety of foods and beverages, describing in detail the specific china, silverware, and glassware to be used. If you're interested in dining car service or are a collector of dining car artifacts, this "book of rules" is a very important item to track down.

This manual was issued to grill car crewmembers. Like the dining car "book of rules" presented above, this item is a comprehensive instruction manual for operating grill cars. It is organized and laid out in pretty much the same way as the dining car book but of course covers the duties of grill car hostesses, attendants, countermen, cooks, and bartenders. This is another "must have" item to track down if you're interested in dining car service or are a collector of dining car artifacts as it presents very comprehensive information about the use of china, glassware, and silver on grill cars.

The New Haven Railroad Dining Car Department issued its own safety rule book to food service workers. Intended to supplement the standard railroad safety rule book, the Dining Car Department's safety rules covered the specialized hazards found on diners and grill cars such as stoves, boiling water, knives, broken glassware, etc.

The New Haven Railroad Dining Car Department published a standard recipe book during the late 1930s as part of a general effort to upgrade food service operations across the railroad. Prior to the development of this book, each New Haven cook prepared food items in the manner he was most familiar with. The standard recipe book was intended to bring consistency to passengers' dining experience. Not only does the recipe book contain several hundred recipes, it also contains instructions on portion sizes and on serving methods. This is another very desirable and hard-to-find item from a collector's perspective. However, about a third of the recipes contained in the standard recipe book have been reproduced in New Haven Railroad - Dining on the Shore Line Route, which is available through the NHRHTA.

This unusual manual covers rules associated with serving alcoholic beverages on the New Haven's diners, grill cars, bar cars, lounge cars, and buffet equipped parlors, sleepers, and other cars. Each state that the New Haven's passenger trains ran through had its own laws regarding alcoholic beverages that covered, among other things, taxation and minimum ages for consumers and servers.

This interesting manual covers the agreement between the American Federation of Labor and the New Haven Railroad regarding working conditions for Dining Car Department employees. Among other things, the manual covers rates of pay for each class of union worker employed by the Dining Car Department. For example, in 1945 a waiter working on New Haven diners on most trains earned 51 cents per hour. Those waiters lucky enough to be assigned to work the Merchants Limited, however, earned the princely sum of 52.67 cents per hour!