- published: 17 Aug 2014
- views: 64302
A dining car (American English) or a restaurant carriage (British English), also a diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant.
It is distinct from other railroad food service cars that do not duplicate the full-service restaurant experience, such as cars 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.
Before dining cars in passenger trains were common in the United States, a rail passenger's 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 rancid meat, cold beans, and old coffee. Such poor conditions discouraged many from making the journey.
Most railroads began offering meal service on trains even before the First Transcontinental Railroad. By the mid-1880s, dedicated dining cars were a normal part of long-distance trains from Chicago to points west, save those of the Santa Fe Railway, which relied on America's first interstate network of restaurants to feed passengers en route. The "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.
If I had a heart,
Then it could bleed;
And if I played guitar,
Still wouldn't be Lou Reed;
And it's deep red.
I can't be framed;
I'm working for him...
And I'm fine that you're sayin'...
Fall back to him;
You'd steal them...
And it makes me red.
If I were a boxer,
I'd know how to spar.
It's the oil on the carpet
That sells the car, friend.
If you're gonna seek,
I won't bother to hide.
No, that's not a book in your hand;
It's a TV Guide...
You we're well read...
And it makes me red...
Yeah, it makes me red.
Incarnadine;
Car to dine.
Make the multitudinous seas
Turn red as my face
You ironic killjoy.
Stock response;
Memorized inflection.
Some have libraries;
Your autograph collection,
Countless.
Confess all your privilege;
Looks like a train.
I diagnose your pop culture brain:
It's so dead...
And it makes me red.
Yeah, it makes me red.
Incarnadine;
Car to dine.
Make the multitudinous seas
Turn red as my face
You ironic killjoy.
Incarnadine;
Car to dine.
I could close my eyes
But it's just so wrong
Before I just go blind as you.
If you can't help it,
And if I were you,
I don't know how;
I'd black out from the shadow.
You look red as my face
You ironic killjoy.