Dining Car Menu for the Little Folk

Canadian National Railways - [1928?]

This elegantly designed menu from approximately 1928 features a delightful poem about the joys of riding on the Canadian National Railway. Much of it concerns food:

If you follow the magic carpet
‘Twill lead to a fairy car,
Where all things good in the way of food
Are served by the C.N.R.

The chairs are right for they’re just your height,
The bibs are of pink or blue,
And smiling up from each plate and cup
Are the nursery pictures too.

A smiling chef in spotless white
You’ll see as you pass through;
His pots and pans are gleaming bright,
He cooks the food for you.

From model farms along the way
Come daily fresh supplies
Of vegetables, eggs and cream,
For puddings, cakes and pies.

 I love to hear my Daddy say,
When we go in to dine,
“Choose anything you like to-day;
The children’s menu’s fine!”

Oh! a shining car is the dining car!
And if I had my way,
Such a fairy treat of things to eat
Would be served ten times a day!

Railway travel might be a rare occasion for a child to dine out, and food was one of the glamorous highlights of a transcontinental railway trip for adults as well. This glamour had a Prairie connection: by the 1940s, both Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway were using Medalta tableware, produced by Medalta Potteries in Medicine Hat (“Western Canadian History”). But dining-car fare was too expensive for many travellers, and restaurants soon sprang up at divisional points along the tracks, where passengers could hop off and swallow a quick meal (Duncan 117).