In Travel Town 1990

   HISTORIC BACKGROUND: Dining Car no. 369 was one of fourteen identical cars built for the Union Pacific Railroad in 1921 by the Pullman Car and Manufacturing Company. The car has table seating for 36 people as well as a full kitchen, complete with wood-fired range, steamtable, ice boxes, hot and cold running water, and even a charcoal broiler. Known to railroaders simply as a "36-seater", this car, and hundreds of others like it, represented the standard on American railroads from the 1880s until the late 1940s - and with some later modernizations, a number of these cars remained in service through the 1960s.

Picture taken 1921

Picture Taken 1921

  The 369 entered service in July 1921, joining a pool of similar
cars which ran in the fleet Union Pacific's first class passenger trains. Although its actual train assignments are not known to us, the list of possibilities includes such grand trains as the Los Angeles Limited and the Overland Limited. In the 1930s, diners of the "300" series were renumbered to "3600" series - our no. 369 became 3669. In 1938, with the advent of new streamlined trains, no. 3669 was removed from regular service, refurbished and assigned to "Coffee Shop" duty on 2nd class trains. Many of her sister cars, which remained in "dining" service, were rebuilt to modernize their looks. The 3669 was not rebuilt, however, and
still retains its original structural appearance.

  THE DINING CAR CREW: A "36-seater", like the 369, normally carried a crew of eleven; a Steward, six waiters, a Chef and three cooks. Up until the late 1940s, a particular dining car always carried the same crew - it was their car. Working 16 hours a day, this crew would go out and back (from Omaha to Los Angeles and back to Omaha, for example), then would lay-over at the terminal for a day before going out again. The car itself followed the same schedule.

  The Steward was the man in charge of the car. He was responsible for seating the customers, tallying checks, collecting payment and otherwise seeing to the comfort and needs of the passengers. The Steward and the Chef would chose the menu items each day; the Steward would requisition the needed groceries and supplies from the terminal commissary
before each trip. During some periods, the Stewards actually printed the menus themselves - on board the moving train!

In the kitchen (which was both cramped and hot) the Chef and his
three assistant Cooks prepared nearly 300 meals a day... and these were not airline meals nor T.V. dinners, these were meals on par with any fine restaurant of the day. Virtually everything was prepared on board: meats were roasted, soups and sauces cooked, even the pies were made and baked completely from scratch. There was no pre-cooked food, frozen entrees nor
microwave ovens. Work on the diners began between 4:30 and 5:00 in the morning and lasted well past 10:00 PM. At night, the tables were unhooked from the walls and folded up. Bedding for the crew was pulled up from storage lockers under the car floor (known as possum bellies). Rows of curtains were hung up on each side of the center aisle, allowing the passengers to walk through the car without encountering the sleeping crew
members on either side.

Current picture 1998

RESTORATION GOALS: The goal of the Association, through its Rail Heritage Southwest project, is to cosmetically restore the 369 back to the way it would have appeared during its early years of passenger service on the Los Angeles Limited. Many years worth of bland paint layers will be stripped from the car's interior to reveal the rich mahogany she displayed in her youth. In turn, the exterior of the car will be returned to its original Pullman Green color, with lettering of gold leaf. When finished, we hope to include this car, along with "The Little Nugget", Rose Bowl and Hunters Point cars, within an enclosed, climate-controlled museum
structure. Your support in our efforts to restore this historic car are
sincerely appreciated.

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©2001 American Southwestern Railway Association, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Last Modified: April 06, 2001