Yesterday while watching a program on the "Cooking Channel" I saw some chef
preparing some kind of chicken dish in a sort of soup or "fricasee" to be
served over rice (I think).
Anyhow it brought back a long ago trip with my grandfather (probably early
1940's) from Lincoln, NE to Sheridan WY on Train No. 43. My memory is of
eating some kind of similar chicken, in a liquid or semi liquid state as we
traversed Northwest Nebraska in the vicinity of the (former) Belmont
Tunnel...This would have been for the noon meal.....I checked a 1940 Alliance
Division timetable and that confirmed my memory that No. 43 was in that
vicinity from around 11:30am to 12:00 noon.
I'll never forget that chicken dish because it was soooooo good...and I don't
ever remember having anything like it since.
Here's the question????Anybody have knowledge of or access to a dining car
menu that would have been in effect on that train in that year...I'd really
like to know what it was and maybe get my wife to fix it for me...She's
pretty good at identifying and recreating food items from menus and just
knowing what it was that I ate on that long ago trip would be nice for me.
A couple of other things that I recall from that trip was that No. 43 had an
open platform observation car and I was permitted to ride said open platform
for some portion of the trip...Also, and I don't remember which way it was,
going out (westbound) or coming back (eastbound) that I was not allowed to go
on the rear platform while we were going through the Belmont Tunnel, sinc the
engine (steam) would be working and the smoke and gas would not be "health"
for me. I don't know wether westbound or eastbound is uphill....
Anyhow...how about you guys with some knowledge of or access to information
re dining cars of the 1940's...how about some help with the chicken dish.
Pete
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