Most missed train catering item?

pdq · 1 Jan 2020

I remember the cheeseburgers as well, from my student days in the early 90s.
Out of interest, do any trains still provide hot food to standard class passengers?

RailUK Forums

Bletchleyite · 1 Jan 2020

pdq said:
I remember the cheeseburgers as well, from my student days in the early 90s.
Out of interest, do any trains still provide hot food to standard class passengers?

I don't know if Avanti have carried it on, but VTWC did "bean pot" type things with rice which were small but nice enough.

Del1977 · 2 Jan 2020

Another vote for the XC cheeseburgers. I quite liked them and would always get one on my trek between South Wales and Durham. I did once get a lasagne on one of those XC trains. It was a microwave slop - could have consumed it through a straw.

The bacon baguettes on the FGW Travelling Chef were very good. In my couple of recent GWR journeys (Cardiff <-> London) I've not even seen the trolley. Very sad.

stj · 2 Jan 2020

Fried Egg on Toast from the Buffet.I think it was only on offer if there was a full breakfast service in the Restaurant Car.

ChilternTurbo · 2 Jan 2020

Foxcover said:
Travellers Fare brunch muffins for me ... always hit the spot!

That's the first thing I thought of before even opening this thread! For a microwave item, they were very tasty. I also liked Casey Jones burger outlets as at mainline station like Victoria. I believe these all became Burger Kings by the mid 1990's.

Mag_seven · 2 Jan 2020

ChilternTurbo said:
I also liked Casey Jones burger outlets as at mainline station like Victoria.

The "Great Casey with Cheese" was a burger to die for (quite literally given its cholesterol content!)

route101 · 2 Jan 2020

Bletchleyite said:
I don't know if Avanti have carried it on, but VTWC did "bean pot" type things with rice which were small but nice enough.

VTWC done mac and cheese pots (excuse my american) last year and did do cheeseburgers at one point.

route101 · 2 Jan 2020

pdq said:
I remember the cheeseburgers as well, from my student days in the early 90s.
Out of interest, do any trains still provide hot food to standard class passengers?

LNER do naan wraps and ham and cheese toasties or pananis

sheff1 · 2 Jan 2020

Not "an item" but a plate full of them - The Cross Country Grill.

Missed items
- toast with the EMT breakfast. A warm muffin is no comparsion.
- soup on the Far North Line.
- kippers.

Not missed
- Maxpax coffee in cups so thin you needed welding gauntlets to hold them for more than 2 seconds.

gaillark · 2 Jan 2020

Loads!
Capital Grill on the Midland line HST's BR days. Bacon, eggs, sausage and beans with coffee.
GNER Restaurant especially on the White Rose Eurostar. Steaks always cooked to perfection.
Fish and chips freshly fried on National Express East Coast in first class only.
Maxpax coffee!
The famous BR pork pie.
Bacon and egg baguette and all day breakfast on First Great Western Travelling Chef.
And the excellent meals at cheap prices on the cross London InterCity trains via Kensington to Brighton and Dover Western Docks. See photo

gaillark · 2 Jan 2020

And I forgot ....
Toasted bacon sandwiches freshly toasted and griddled from the buffet car on trains from London Victoria to Gatwick, Eastbourne, Brighton and Littlehampton. The old mk1 slam doors.
Gosh those bacon sarnies and toast were amazing served with lashings of butter dripping off polished off with coffee and doughnuts.

Finally it all started when I was about age 14 - remember it like yesterday. Afternoon Tea with loads of cakes, jam sandwiches , chicken and beef sandwiches from Manningtree to London LiverpoolStreet. I was hooked from there on. There is something magical dining on the train.

Although it's not food, I do miss the hot refreshing towel that was given to refreshen up on the Manchester Pullman. And the catering staff unifoms looked the part. Smart and professional .

leightonbd · 3 Jan 2020

Tomato soup (from an urn) and hot pies/ pasties (from a glass cabinet) in station buffets. Or a cup of tea (from the pot). Got me all around the country in the late 70s/early 80s - uni visits, job interviews, etc. By the mid/ late 80s the individual serving of tea, coffee, etc had taken over.

More recently - GWR cheese and ham toastie? From the buffet on the 125s?

eastwestdivide · 3 Jan 2020

Individual Lyons fruit pies?
See also a related thread here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/railway-food.97606/

xotGD · 3 Jan 2020

Before there were 17 branches of Costa on every station platform, the "Klix" machine was a source of hot drinks.

I think "bring a flask" was the better approach.

eastwestdivide · 3 Jan 2020

xotGD said:
Before there were 17 branches of Costa on every station platform, the "Klix" machine was a source of hot drinks.

I think "bring a flask" was the better approach.

You're not wrong there - Klix machines dispensing boiling water into a very thin plastic cup with granules of who knows what in the bottom. Too hot to hold, no way to stir it, and not all that much of it anyway.

route101 · 3 Jan 2020

xotGD said:
Before there were 17 branches of Costa on every station platform, the "Klix" machine was a source of hot drinks.

I think "bring a flask" was the better approach.

When you reckon the first starbucks and Costa opened in stations?

xotGD · 3 Jan 2020

route101 said:
When you reckon the first starbucks and Costa opened in stations?

There's a good question. I'm assuming Costa was a lot further back than one might expect.

route101 · 4 Jan 2020

xotGD said:
There's a good question. I'm assuming Costa was a lot further back than one might expect.

Cant recall any before say 99 - 2000 in stations .

NoOnesFool · 4 Jan 2020

Where I work, we used to do Karyatis Mediterranean Snack boxes which were delicious. They contained a feta and red pepper dip, hummus, olives and a sweet baklava pastry.

On CrossCountry, I miss their Cheese and Red Onion Paninis and IIRC, they used to do hot soup which was nice for dipping a sandwich in.

I can't remember any further back...however this video does show a nostalgic BR Intercity (East Coast) menu, from 1994.

For those unable to access this external website, here is the text.

This was videoed on Thursday, June 30, 1994 at 7 a.m. at the Inverness train station. I don't know anything about the train set, but I'm posting it since rail fans might find it interesting. Not too many 20-year old videos have this level of quality and detail.

Struner · 4 Jan 2020

NoOnesFool said:
Where I work, we used to do Karyatis Mediterranean Snack boxes which were delicious. They contained a feta and red pepper dip, hummus, olives and a sweet baklava pastry.

On CrossCountry, I miss their Cheese and Red Onion Paninis and IIRC, they used to do hot soup which was nice for dipping a sandwich in.

I can't remember any further back...however this video does show a nostalgic BR Intercity (East Coast) menu, from 1994.

For those unable to access this external website, here is the text.

& a nice description of the toilet:
Probably good for a woman, but a bit charging for a man... to say the least

Porter Swain · 4 Jan 2020

Hi, Porter Swain here, :lol:

. (The avatar is actually my very late Grandfather)
Had to join to say how much I miss the dinning car chairs of the 1970s, I always thought they looked homely. Also, BR cheese biscuit pack that I bought as a kid on the 4.45pm Brighton Belle to Victoria back 1972 -74. They cost a fortune then but was a special treat on way home from Boarding school for weekend.

basfordlad · 6 Jan 2020

I remember getting a full English on xc (hst) in the buffet car with a laid out table ! ( heated in microwave)and a cup of tea

iainbhx · 7 Jan 2020

I remember getting hot buttered toast from buffets when going between New Street and Bristol Parkway when I was at uni in Swansea between 1983 and 1986.

Most missed train catering item?

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