By J. Bruce Richardson, Corridor Rail Development Corporation; December 3, 2020
The Western Star, a secondary train of the Great Northern Railway operating between Chicago and Seattle/Portland lasted just a month short of exactly 20 years, disappearing into the night on the advent of Amtrak operations in 1971.
Great Northern’s Empire Builder, which survived into Amtrak and today, was the railway’s primary and fastest train between Chicago and Seattle/Portland, running about 13 hours faster than the Western Star, which made numerous local stops.
As with other secondary trains on famous routes, the Western Star offered passengers good service and onboard amenities. A typical Western Star consist carried baggage cars, long distance coaches, Pullman sleeping cars, a full dining car, a lounge car, and an observation lounge car.
Western Star passengers included a number of employee and foreign road (other railroads) employee pass riders; like other railroads with premium passenger trains, all pass riders were not welcome on the premium trains and were relegated to the slower, less prestigious trains.
There was nothing secondary about the Western Star’s dining car food in the 1960s. The dinner menu included:
Plate dinners for $1.50
• Baked Sugar Cured Ham with Raisin Sauce
• Fresh Seasonable Fish with Tartar Sauce
Each served with potatoes, vegetable du jour, hot dinner rolls with butter, fresh baked pie, and a choice of beverage. A half portion of the above meal for children under 12 years old was 75 cents.
Patrons wishing a Chef’s Tossed Salad with dinner, accompanied by French Dressing could add that for 25 cents.
The Western Star Special was $3.75 and included chilled tomato juice, an 8 ounce Prime Rib Eye Steak with broiled tomato, the potato du jour and tossed salad with French dressing, hot rolls and butter, a choice of ice cream or sherbet or pie, and a choice of beverage. Notable is the message at the bottom of the entree: “Allow 25 minutes for preparation.”
Like all other dining cars of the post-war era, just about every item served was fresh prepared; while the cars had refrigeration and some freezer capacity (hence, the availability of ice cream), all cooking was done over coke-log fired stoves and there was very little pre-prepared food used, as most modern food preparation methods as used today had not yet been invented or were not widely available.
Like all great passenger train operators, Great Northern understood the patronage of passengers was dependent on good onboard services maintained at acceptable levels. Competing with the Great Northern was Northern Pacific and the Milwaukee Road, each determined to offer passengers an enjoyable and memorable trip through the exigencies of private companies and free market competition.