The Waitress Didn't Like Me

While my dad and I were in West Virgina, we took a ride on the Mountain Explorer Dinner Train which left from Elkin's beautifully refurbished Western Maryland Railway station.

The City of Elkins was developed by senators Henry Gassaway Davis and Stephen B. Elkins and named for Sen. Elkins, in 1890. The two senators developed railroad lines, coal mines and timbering. Together, they built the railroad into Elkins and opened a vast territory to industrial development in the late 1899s. As the railroad expanded, Elkins experienced the luxury of train passenger service. In 1930, 18 passenger trains were arriving and leaving Elkins daily. All passenger service was discontinued in 1958.

The remaining track, encompassing some 140 miles and managed by the West Virginia Central Railroad, is now operated by the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad.

The old Western Maryland bridge was recently rebuilt, allowing rail access to the Elkins train depot which was abandoned by the railroad in 1992 and once the location of a 22-acre, roundhouse-equipped yard.


The dinner train runs along the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River, West Virginia, going from Elkins to the High Falls (or Upper Falls) tucked in a bend of Cheat Mountain.


Train travel and fine dining were one of the great pleasures enjoyed by previous generations of Americans. As faster modes of transportation evolved, the magnificent long-distance passenger trains began to disappear, thus bringing to a close the era of dining car service.

The recipes for the unique meals offered to us were original menu items from the great cross-country trains of the 1930 era. This was a time that saw some of the finest dining in the country being served as the trains sped across the mountains and plains America.

I had a marvelous cut of Prime Rib. My dad had some Lobster on creamy Pasta.


As dusk was settling, the dinner train pulled to a stop at the site of the water fall and everyone was encouraged to leave their seats and take a short walk down the steep river bank to see the falls. The footing was rocky and slick with mud, so a number of people didn't attempt the walk - some were wearing high heels and others were using crutches. I thought it was a shame they couldn't "see" the falls - and then it occurred to me that I could show them a video on the LCD viewer of my camera.


I showed about six people the video and they were happy to have been able to see the falls - even if it was "remotely" and now I share the video with you, something that could not have been done in the 1930s.