WAGON-BAR

This delightfully old-fashioned history of railway catering has the air of a family album about it. Who doesn’t remember that meal tray with its slice of ham that was too pink, or that croque-monsieur that was too toasted?
From the very chic dining cars of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, a pioneer in this field at the end of the ^19th century, to the orange and green design of the Corail bar in the 1980s, this book tells the fascinating story of the evolution of “on-board gastronomy”.
The luxury and refinement of the inter-war years were followed by the many innovations of the 1950s and 1960s: bars and snack bars, street food and meal trays all responded to the changing eating habits of travellers. The 1970s marked a major break with the disappearance of on-board catering and the spread of takeaway sales.
Whether advertising photographs or documentary archives, these images trace the contours of a railway history as much as a cultural one, feeding – at high speed – our intimate mythologies.

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