LNER Poster #11 Dining Discretion!

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

In the between war years, most prestigious trains in the UK boasted fully equipped dining cars that would put anything today to shame.

They had both set and a la carte menus (the latter really extensive) and stupendous wine lists that posh restaurants today would give their eye teeth for! Even a provincial train, like the WEST RIDING LTD in Yorkshire, offered in 1938 9 different brands of mineral water and 5 different top class champagnes, as well as 18 other different varieties of “bubbly”!

Here is an LNER Poster from 1933 painted by Austin Cooper. Note the wording…..

In mixing cocktails and serving crusted port – regard for our passengers eupeptic welfare – these are qualities that distinguish the LNER waiter.

Incidentally Crusted Port is a very small category of port, named because of the 'crust' of sediment that it forms in the bottle. It is from a good year, but not one declared a Vintage and is bottled quite early being intended for laying down for some time.

Eupeptic means pertaining to or full of, good digestion!