Back in the days when the Penn Central ran the passenger rail/commuter operations from Grand Central Terminal going northward and outward, I had a boss who used to ride in from Yonkers and he would talk fondly of the after work card games and drinks in the bar cars heading home during the evenings. I actually got to ride in a bar car a few times visiting my mother and her husband after they moved out of the city up to Rye in the 70's. I remember before they had raised platforms, and when there were still FP-7's doing push/pull operations to and from the city, along with FL-9's.
My most cultured railroading experience came in the summer of 1969, when at the age of 12 years and nine months, my mother took me and my sister on a trip to Arvada, Colorado to see my uncle and his family. After taking some poorly maintained old equipment out to Chicago's incredible Union Station, we then boarded The Denver Zephyr out to Denver. What a wonderful, truly American experience!!! We had a sleeper car, ate in the dining car, rode in the Vista-Dome and got to see the famous "Plains States" and the overall beauty and richness of the landscape in the Midwest and the Rockies.
Although 1969 passenger railroading in the United States was but a crippled shell of its former self, The Denver Zephyr's well maintained equipment and attentive staff, as well as the incredibly scenic and varied views along the way made it an unforgettable experience, both to and from Denver two weeks later.
