Product Review

A meal in the dining car was often the highlight of any train trip. Gordon Mooneyhan, a lifelong railroad enthusiast, as well as an accomplished amateur chef, has captured the essence of those bygone days in the Atlantic Coast Line Dining Car Cookbook.

The “Coast Line” was one of the railroads that actually maintained a cookbook. Still, the copies that were in archives were not complete. Gordon was able to search libraries and other sources to find many of the missing recipes, although some, such as “Coast Line Dressing” have been lost to time. In those instances, Gordon has “recreated” the recipes, based on descriptions of the original, and they are noted as such in the book.

Also included is a history of “Hitching Post Foods.” Hitching Post Dressing and Mint Syrup were used on the ACL dining cars, and recipes for those items have been recreated here.

Take a step back in time and enjoy meals from an era when life was simpler, less hectic, and when getting there was half the fun!